Creativity and inventions of Leonardo da Vinci. Leonardo da Vinci: where he was born, what he became famous for, interesting facts

Leonardo da Vinci. 04/15/1452, Vinci – 05/02/1519, Clue

The unprecedented attention now paid by historians and fiction writers to the personality of Leonardo da Vinci is evidence of a turning point in relation to the culture of the Renaissance, a revaluation of the spiritual content of the “greatest progressive revolution” that underlies modern life. European civilization. They see Leonardo as a kind of quintessence of the emerging era, emphasizing and highlighting in his work either the connection with the worldview of the previous time, or the radical demarcation from it. Mysticism and rationalism coexist in the assessment of his personality in an incomprehensible balance, and even the huge written heritage of the master, which has come down to our time, is not able to shake him. Leonardo da Vinci is among the greatest scientists, although very few of his projects were realized. He is also one of the greatest artists, despite the fact that he created very few paintings (and not all of them have survived) and less sculptures(not preserved at all). What makes Leonardo great is not the number of ideas he implemented, but the change in method, both scientific and artistic activity. Figuratively speaking, he sought to “understand the organism of each object separately and the organism of the entire universe” (A. Benoit).

Leonardo da Vinci. Self-portrait, ca. 1510-1515

Leonardo's childhood and adolescence are very little documented. His father, Piero da Vinci, was a hereditary notary; Already in the year of his son’s birth, he practiced in Florence and soon took a prominent position there. All that is known about the mother is that her name was Katerina, she came from peasant family and soon after Leonardo was born, she was married to a wealthy farmer, a certain Accatabridge di Piero del Vaccia. Leonardo was taken into his father's house and raised by his childless stepmother Albiera Amadori. What and how he was taught, what his first experiences in drawing were, is unknown. What is indisputable is that the formation of the boy’s personality was greatly, if not decisively, influenced by his uncle Francesco, with whom Leonardo da Vinci maintained the warmest relationship throughout his life. Since Leonardo was an illegitimate son, he could not inherit his father's profession. Vasari reports that Pierrot was friends with Andrea Verrocchio and one day showed him his son’s drawings, after which Andrea took Leonardo to his workshop. Piero and his family moved to Florence in 1466, therefore, Leonardo da Vinci ended up in the workshop (bottega) of Verrocchio at the age of fourteen.

The largest works carried out by Verrocchio during the period of Leonardo’s studies with him were the statue “David” (Florence, Bargello), commissioned by the family Medici(it is believed that the young Leonardo da Vinci posed for her), and the completion of the dome of the Florence Cathedral with a golden ball with a cross (the city’s order was received on September 10, 1468 and completed in May 1472). In Andrea's workshop, the best in Florence, Leonardo da Vinci had the opportunity to study all types visual arts, architecture, perspective theory and become partially familiar with natural and humanities. His development as a painter was apparently influenced not so much by Verrocchio himself as by Botticelli and Botticelli, who studied with him in the same years. Perugino.

In 1469 Piero da Vinci received the position of notary of the Florentine Republic, and then of a number of the largest monasteries and families. By this time he was widowed. Having finally moved to Florence, Piero remarried and took Leonardo into his home. Leonardo continued his studies with Verrocchio and also studied science on his own. Already during these years he met Paolo Toscanelli (mathematician, doctor, astronomer and geographer) and Leon Battista Alberti. In 1472 he joined the guild of painters and, as evidenced by the entry in the guild book, paid a fee for the organization of the feast of St. Luke. That same year he returned to Andrea's workshop, since his father was widowed for the second time and married for the third time. In 1480 Leonardo da Vinci had his own workshop. The first painting by Leonardo, known today, is the image of an angel in the painting “The Baptism of Christ” (Florence, Uffizi). Until recently, the painting was considered (based on a report Vasari) by Verrocchio, who supposedly, having seen how much his student surpassed him in skill, abandoned painting.

Baptism of Christ. A painting by Verrocchio, painted by him and his students. The right one of the two angels is the work of Leonardo da Vinci. 1472-1475

However, an analysis carried out by Uffizi staff showed that the work was carried out collectively by three or even four artists in accordance with the traditions of medieval workshops. Obviously, main role Botticelli played among them. The origin of the figure of the left angel by Leonardo is beyond doubt. He also painted part of the landscape - behind the angel at the edge of the composition.

The lack of documentary evidence, signatures and dates on the paintings makes their attribution very difficult. Two “Annunciations” date back to the early 1470s, which, judging by their horizontal format, are altar predella. Those of them that are kept in the Uffizi collection are included in a number of the few early works of Leonardo da Vinci. His dry execution and the types of faces of Mary and the angel are reminiscent of the works of Lorenzo di Credi, Leonardo's comrade in Verrocchio's workshop.

Painting by Leonardo da Vinci "The Annunciation", 1472-1475. Uffizi Gallery

The Annunciation from the Louvre, rendered in a more generalized manner, is currently attributed to the works of Lorenzo.

Leonardo da Vinci. Annunciation, 1478-1482. Louvre Museum

The first dated work by Leonardo da Vinci is a pen drawing representing a landscape with a river valley and rocks, possibly a view along the road from Vinci to Pistoia (Florence, Uffizi). In the upper left corner of the sheet there is an inscription: “On the day of St. Mary of the Snows, August 5, 1473.” This inscription - the first known example of Leonardo da Vinci's handwriting - was made with the left hand, from right to left, as if in a mirror image.

Leonardo da Vinci. Landscape with a river valley and rocks, executed on the day of St. Mary of the Snows, August 5, 1473

Numerous drawings of a technical nature also date back to the 1470s - images of military vehicles, hydraulic structures, spinning machines and for finishing cloth. Perhaps it was Leonardo da Vinci’s technical projects that he carried out for Lorenzo de’ Medici, to whom, as stated in the master’s biography (written unknown author, apparently shortly after Leonardo's death), he was close for some time.

Leonardo da Vinci received his first large order for a painting thanks to his father’s petition. December 24, 1477 Piero Pollaiolo was commissioned to paint a new altarpiece (instead of the work by Bernardo Daddi) for the Chapel of St. Bernard in the Palazzo Vecchio. But a week later, a decree of the Signoria appeared (dated January 1, 1478), according to which the work was transferred “in cancellation of any other order made up to now in any way, in any way and to anyone, Leonardo , son of Ser [notary] Piero da Vinci, painter.” Apparently, Leonardo needed money, and already on March 16, 1478 he turned to the Florentine government with a request for an advance. He was paid 25 gold florins. The work, however, moved so slowly that it was not completed by the time Leonardo da Vinci left for Milan (1482) and next year was transferred to another master. The plot of this work is unknown. The second order that Leonardo Ser Piero provided was the execution of an altar image for the church of the monastery of San Donato a Scopeto. On March 18, 1481, he entered into an agreement with his son, precisely specifying the deadline for completing the work (in twenty-four, at most thirty months) and indicating that Leonardo would not receive an advance, and if he did not meet the deadline, then everything that would be done by him would be will become the property of the monastery. However, history repeated itself, and in July 1481 the artist turned to the monks with a request for an advance, received it, and then twice more (in August and September) took money as collateral for the future work. Large composition“The Adoration of the Magi” (Florence, Uffizi) remained unfinished, but even in this form it is one of “those works on which all further development is based European painting"(M. A. Gukovsky). Numerous drawings for it are kept in the collections of the Uffizi, Louvre and the British Museum. In 1496, the order for the altar was transferred to Filippino Lippi, and he painted a painting on the same subject (Florence, Uffizi).

Leonardo da Vinci. Adoration of the Magi, 1481-1482

“St. Jerome" (Rome, Pinacoteca Vatican), which is an underpainting in which the figure of the penitent saint is worked out with exceptional anatomical precision, and some minor details, for example the lion in the foreground, are only outlined.

A special place among the master’s early works is occupied by two completed works - “Portrait of Ginevra d’Amerigo Benci” (Washington, National Gallery) and “Madonna with a Flower” (St. Petersburg, State Hermitage Museum). The seriousness and peculiar hermeticism of Ginevra’s image, which speaks of her complex spiritual life, mark the first manifestations of a psychological portrait in European art. The painting has not been completely preserved: its lower part with the image of hands has been cut off. Apparently, the position of the figure was reminiscent of the Mona Lisa.

Leonardo da Vinci. Portrait of Ginevra de Benci, 1474-1478

The dating of the “Madonna of the Flower, or Madonna of Benois” (1478-1480) is accepted on the basis of a note on one of the sheets from the Cabinet of Drawings in the Uffizi: “...bre 1478 inchomincial le due Vergini Marie.” The composition of this painting is recognizable in the drawing with pen and bistrome, stored in the British Museum (No. 1860. 6. 16. 100v.). Made in a new technique for Italy oil painting, the picture is distinguished by the transparent lightness of the shadows and the richness of color shades with an overall restrained color scheme. The transmission begins to play an extremely important role in creating a holistic impression, connecting characters with their environment. air environment. Melting chiaroscuro, sfumato, makes the boundaries of objects subtly unsteady, expressing the material unity of the visible world.

Leonardo da Vinci. Madonna with a flower ( Madonna Benoit). OK. 1478

Another early work of Leonardo da Vinci is considered to be “Madonna of the Carnation” (Munich, Alte Pinakothek). Perhaps this work preceded the appearance of the Benois Madonna.

Vasari reports that in his youth Leonardo da Vinci made from clay “several heads of laughing women,” from which plaster casts were still made in his time, as well as several children’s heads. He also mentions how Leonardo depicted a monster on a wooden shield, “very disgusting and terrible, which poisoned with its breath and ignited the air.” The description of the process of its creation reveals the system of work of Leonardo da Vinci - a method in which the basis of creativity is the observation of nature, but not with the goal of copying it, but in order to create something new based on it. Leonardo did the same thing later, when painting “The Head of Medusa” (not preserved). Executed in oil on canvas, it remained unfinished in the middle of the 16th century. was in the collection of Duke Cosimo de' Medici.

In the so-called “Codex Atlantica” (Milan, Pinacoteca Ambrosiana), the most large meeting Leonardo da Vinci's notes on various fields of knowledge; on page 204 there is a draft letter from the artist to the ruler of Milan, Lodovico Sforza ( Lodovico Moro). Leonardo offers his services as a military engineer, hydraulic engineer, and sculptor. In the latter case we're talking about about the creation of a grandiose equestrian monument to Francesco Sforza, father of Lodovico. Since Moro visited Florence in April 1478, there is an assumption that even then he met Leonardo da Vinci and negotiated about working on “The Horse.” In 1482, with the permission of Lorenzo Medici, the master left for Milan. A list of things that he took with him has been preserved - among them many drawings and two paintings are mentioned: “The Finished Madonna. The other is almost in profile.” Obviously, they meant “Madonna Litta” (St. Petersburg, State Hermitage Museum). It is believed that the master finished it already in Milan around 1490. An excellent preparatory drawing for it - an image of a woman's head - is kept in the collection of the Louvre (No. 2376). Active interest in this work on the part of researchers arose after its acquisition by the Imperial Hermitage (1865) from the collection of Duke Antonio Litta in Milan. The authorship of Leonardo da Vinci has been repeatedly denied, but now, after research and exhibition of the painting in Rome and Venice (2003-2004), it has become generally accepted.

Leonardo da Vinci. Madonna Litta. OK. 1491-91

There are several more portraits, executed with the elegance characteristic of Leonardo, but compositionally they are solved more simply and do not have the spiritual mobility that makes the image of Cecilia fascinating. This " Female portrait"in profile (Milan, Pinacoteca Ambrosiana), "Portrait of a Musician" (1485, ibid.) - possibly Franchino Gaffurio, regent of the Milan Cathedral and composer - and the so-called "Bella Feroniera" (portrait of Lucrezia Crivelli?) from the Louvre collection.

Leonardo da Vinci. Portrait of a Musician, 1485-1490

On behalf of Lodovico Moro, Leonardo da Vinci performed for Emperor Maximilian the painting “The Nativity,” about which an anonymous biographer writes that it was “revered by connoisseurs as a masterpiece of one-of-a-kind and amazing art.” Her fate is unknown.

Leonardo da Vinci. Bella Ferroniera (Beautiful Ferroniera). OK. 1490

Leonardo's largest painting created in Milan was the famous "Last Supper", painted on the end wall of the refectory of the Dominican monastery of Santa Maria delle Grazie. Leonardo da Vinci began the actual execution of the composition in 1496. This was preceded by a long period of deliberation. The collections of Windsor and the Venetian Academy contain numerous drawings, sketches, sketches related to this work, among which the heads of the apostles especially stand out for their expressiveness. It is not known exactly when the master completed the work. It is generally believed that this happened in the winter of 1497, but a note sent by Moro to his secretary Marchesino Stange and referring to this year says: “Demand that Leonardo finish his work in the refectory of Santa Maria delle Grazie.” Luca Pacioli reports that Leonardo completed the painting in 1498. As soon as the painting saw the light, a pilgrimage of painters began, who more or less successfully copied it. “There are paintings, frescoes, graphic, mosaic versions, as well as carpets that repeat the composition of Leonardo da Vinci” (T. K. Kustodieva). The earliest of them are kept in the collections of the Louvre (Marco d'Odzhono?) and the Hermitage (No. 2036).

Leonardo da Vinci. Last Supper, 1498

The composition of “The Last Supper” in its “airy volume” seems to be a continuation of the refectory hall. The master was able to achieve such an effect due to his excellent knowledge of perspective. The Gospel scene appears here “close to the viewer, humanly understandable and at the same time not losing either its high solemnity or its deep drama” (M. A. Gukovsky). The glory of the great work, however, could not protect “The Last Supper” either from the destruction of time or from the barbaric attitude of people. Due to the dampness of the walls, the paints began to fade during Leonardo da Vinci’s lifetime, and in 1560 Lomazzo reported in his “Treatise on Painting,” albeit somewhat exaggerating, that the painting was “completely destroyed.” In 1652, the monks enlarged the door of the refectory and destroyed the image of the feet of Christ and the apostles next to Him. Artists also contributed their share of destruction. So, in 1726, a certain Belotti, “who claimed to have the secret of bringing colors to life” (G. Sayle), rewrote the entire picture. In 1796, when Napoleon's troops entered Milan, a stable was built in the refectory, and the soldiers amused themselves by throwing fragments of bricks at the heads of the apostles. In the 19th century “The Last Supper” was reconstructed several more times, and during the Second World War, during the bombing of Milan by British aircraft, the side wall of the refectory collapsed. Restoration work, which began after the war and consisted of strengthening and partially clearing the paintings, was completed in 1954. More than twenty years later (1978), restorers began a grandiose effort to remove later layers, which was completed only in 1999. Several centuries later, you can again see the bright and clean paints of a genuine master's painting.

Obviously, immediately after arriving in Milan, Leonardo da Vinci turned to the design of the monument to Francesco Sforza. Numerous sketches indicate changes in the master’s plan, who initially wanted to present the horse rearing (in all equestrian monuments that existed at that time, the horse was shown calmly walking). Such a composition, given the huge size of the sculpture (about 6 m high; according to other sources - about 8 m), created almost insurmountable difficulties during casting. The solution to the problem was delayed, and Moro instructed the Florentine ambassador in Milan to order another sculptor from Florence, which he reported Lorenzo Medici in a letter dated July 22, 1489. Leonardo had to work closely on “The Horse.” However, in the summer of 1490, work on the monument was interrupted by the trip of Leonardo and Francesco di Giorgio Martini to Pavia to advise on the construction of the cathedral. In early September, preparations began for Lodovico’s wedding, and then the master carried out numerous assignments for the new ruler, Beatrice. At the beginning of 1493, Lodovico ordered Leonardo to speed up the work in order to show the statue during the next wedding celebrations: Emperor Maximilian was marrying Moreau's niece, Bianca Maria. The clay model of the statue - “The Great Colossus” - was completed on time, by November 1493. The master abandoned the original idea and showed the horse walking calmly. Only a few sketches give an idea of ​​this final version of the monument. It was technically impossible to cast the entire sculpture at once, so the master began experimental work. In addition, about eighty tons of bronze were required, which was collected only by 1497. All of it was used for cannons: Milan was expecting an invasion by the troops of the French king Louis XII. In 1498, when the political position of the duchy temporarily improved, Lodovico commissioned Leonardo da Vinci to paint the hall in the Castello Sforzesco - the Sala delle Acce, and on April 26, 1499 he signed a deed of gift for a vineyard in the vicinity of Milan. This was the last favor shown by the Duke to the artist. On August 10, 1499, French troops entered the territory of the Duchy of Milan, on August 31, Lodovico fled from the city, and on September 3, Milan surrendered. The Gascon marksmen of Louis XII destroyed a clay statue while competing in crossbow shooting. Apparently, even after this, the monument made a strong impression, since two years later, Duke of Ferrara Ercole I d'Este negotiated its acquisition. The further fate of the monument is unknown.

Leonardo da Vinci remained in the occupied city for some time, and then, together with Luca Pacioli, went to Mantua to the court of Isabella Gonzaga. For political reasons (Isabella was the sister of Beatrice, Moreau’s wife, who had died by that time - in 1497), the margravess did not want to provide patronage to the artist. However, she wanted Leonardo da Vinci to paint her portrait. Without stopping in Mantua, Leonardo and Pacioli went to Venice. In March 1500, the musical instrument maker Lorenzo Gusnasco da Pavia wrote to Isabella in a letter: “Here in Venice is Leonardo Vinci, who showed me an outline portrait of Your Lordship, which is as well executed according to nature as possible.” Obviously, we were talking about a drawing currently kept in the Louvre. The master never completed a picturesque portrait. In April 1500 Leonardo and Pacioli were already in Florence. During this short – just over two years – quiet period of Leonardo da Vinci’s life, he was mainly engaged in technical research (in particular, the design of an aircraft) and, at the request of the Florentine government, took part in an examination to identify the reasons for the subsidence of the Church of San Salvatore on the hill of San Miniato. According to Vasari, at that time Filippino Lippi received an order for an altarpiece for the Church of Santissima Annunziata. Leonardo “declared that he would be willing to do such work,” and Filippino kindly gave him the order. The idea for the painting “St. Anne” apparently came to Leonardo da Vinci while still in Milan. There are numerous drawings of this composition, as well as a magnificent cardboard (London, National Gallery), but it did not form the basis of the final decision. Exhibited by the master after Easter in 1501 for public viewing, the cardboard did not survive, but, judging by the documents that have survived to this day, it was its composition that was repeated by the master in the well-known painting from the Louvre. Thus, on April 3, 1501, the Vicar General of the Carmelites Pietro da Nuvolario, who was in correspondence with Isabella Gonzaga, informed her, describing in detail the composition of the cardboard, that, in his opinion, the image of St. Anna embodies the Church, which does not want “His sufferings to be turned away from Christ.” It is unclear when exactly the altar painting was completed. Perhaps the master finished it in Italy, where it was acquired by Francis I, as Paolo Giovio reports, without specifying when or from whom. In any case, the customers did not receive it and in 1503 they again turned to Filippino, but he did not satisfy their wishes.

At the end of July 1502 Leonardo da Vinci entered the service of Cesare Borgia, son Pope AlexanderVI, who by this time, trying to create his own possessions, had captured almost all of Central Italy. As chief military engineer, Leonardo traveled around Umbria, Tuscany, Romagna, drawing up plans for fortresses and consulting local engineers on improving the defense system, and created maps for military needs. However, already in March 1503 he was again in Florence.

By the beginning of the first decade of the 16th century. refers to the creation of Leonardo da Vinci’s most famous work - the portrait of Mona Lisa - “La Gioconda” (Paris, Louvre), a painting that has no equal in the number of interpretations and controversies it provoked. The portrait of the wife of the Florentine merchant Francesco del Giocondo combines the amazing concreteness of reality with such spiritual ambiguity and generality of the universal that it outgrows the boundaries of the genre and ceases to be a portrait in the proper sense of the word. “This is not a mysterious woman, this is a mysterious being” (Leonardo. M. Batkin). The very first description of the painting given by Vasari is contradictory, who assures that Leonardo da Vinci worked on it for four years and did not finish, but immediately writes admiringly that the portrait “reproduces all the smallest details that the subtlety of painting can convey.”

Leonardo da Vinci. Mona Lisa (La Gioconda), c. 1503-1505

Another painting created by Leonardo da Vinci during these years, “Madonna with a Spindle,” is described in detail by Pietro da Nuvolario in a letter to Isabella Gonzaga dated April 4, 1503. The vicar reports that the artist painted it for the secretary of Louis XII. The fate of the painting is unknown. A good copy of the 16th century gives an idea of ​​it. (collection of the Duke of Buccleuch in Scotland).

During the same period, Leonardo returned to his anatomy studies, which he began in Milan in the building of the Grand Hospital. In Florence, doctors and university students, with special permission from the government, worked on the premises of Santa Croce. The treatise on anatomy that the master was going to compile was not carried out.

In the fall of 1503, through the permanent gonfalonier Pietro Soderini, Leonardo da Vinci received an order for a large painting - painting one of the walls of the new hall - the Council Hall, added in 1496 to the Palazzo della Signoria. On October 24, the artist was given the keys to the so-called Papal Hall of the Monastery of Santa Maria Novella, where he began work on the cardboard. By decree of the Signoria he received 53 gold florins in advance and permission to receive small sums “from time to time.” The completion date for the work was February 1505. The theme of the future work was the Battle of Anghiari (June 29, 1440) between the Florentines and Milanese. In August 1504, Michelangelo received an order for the second painting for the Council Hall - “The Battle of Cascina”. Both craftsmen completed the work on time, and the cardboards were displayed to the public in the Council Chamber. They made a tremendous impression; artists immediately began to copy them, but it was impossible to determine the winner in this unique competition. Both cardboards have not survived. The central part of Leonardo da Vinci's composition was the scene of the battle for the banner. Only about it can one currently get some idea thanks to a drawing by Raphael (Oxford, Christ Church Library), executed by him in 1505-1506, as well as from a copy of Rubens (Paris, Louvre). However, it is unknown where exactly Rubens, who lived in Italy in 1600-1608, made his copy from. An anonymous biographer of Leonardo da Vinci reports that after the death of the master, one could see most cardboard “Battle of Anghiari”, and the “group of horsemen remaining in the palazzo” also belonged to it. In 1558 Benvenuto Cellini in his “Biography” he writes that the cardboards hung in the Papal Hall and “while they were intact, they were a school for the whole world.” From this we can conclude that in the 1550s Leonardo's cardboard, at least as a whole, no longer existed.

Leonardo da Vinci. Battle of Anghiari, 1503-1505 (detail)

Contrary to custom, Leonardo completed the painting on the wall of the Council Chamber quickly. As the anonymous author reports, he worked on a new soil of his own invention and used the heat of a brazier to dry it as quickly as possible. However, the wall dried unevenly, its upper part did not hold the paint, and the painting turned out to be hopelessly damaged. Soderini demanded completion of the work or return of the money. The situation was temporarily resolved by leaving for Milan, at the invitation of his viceroy, Charles d'Amboise, Marquis de Chaumont. The artist entered into an agreement with the Signoria, according to which he undertook to return in three months, and in case of violation of the obligation, to pay a penalty of 150 gold florins. June 1 1506 Leonardo da Vinci went to Milan. In a letter dated August 18, Charles d'Amboise asks the Florentine government to keep the artist at his disposal for some time. In the response letter (dated August 28), consent was given, but with the condition of repaying the debt. Since the money was not sent, Soderini again appealed to the governor on October 9, demanding compliance with the agreement. Finally, on January 12, 1507, the Florentine ambassador to the French court informed the members of the Signoria that Louis XII wanted to leave Leonardo in Milan until his arrival. Two days later, the king personally signed a letter with the same content. In April 1507, Leonardo received his vineyard back and at the beginning of May he was able to pay 150 florins. The king arrived in Milan on May 24: Leonardo da Vinci took an active part in organizing processions and performances for this occasion. Thanks to the intervention of Louis, on August 24, the long-term process over the “Madonna of the Rocks” ended. The painting remained at the master’s disposal, but he, together with Ambrogio de Predis (Evangelista had died by this time), had to paint another one on the same subject within two years (London, National Gallery).

From September 1507 to September 1508 Leonardo da Vinci was in Florence: it was necessary to conduct litigation over an inheritance. The elderly Ser Piero, Leonardo's father, died back in 1504 at the age of ninety, leaving ten sons and two daughters.

Saint Anne with the Madonna and Child Christ. Painting by Leonardo da Vinci, c. 1510

In Milan, Leonardo da Vinci completed “Saint Anne” and painted several more paintings, the most famous of which is “John the Baptist” (Paris, Louvre). Currently, the “Bacchus” stored there is also recognized as the work of Leonardo.

Leonardo da Vinci. John the Baptist, 1513-1516

Leda was also in the French royal collection. Last time this painting is mentioned in the inventory of Fontainebleau in 1694. According to legend, it was destroyed at the request of Madame de Maintenon, the last favorite of Louis XIV. An idea of ​​its composition is given by several drawings by the master and several repetitions that differ in detail (the best is attributed to Cesare da Sesto and is kept in the Uffizi).

Leda. Work tentatively attributed to Leonardo da Vinci, 1508-1515

Besides paintings, Leonardo da Vinci was in Milan designing a monument to Marshal Trivulzio, who was in French service. A small bronze model in the collection of the Budapest Museum is believed to be associated with this project. If this is so, then Leonardo da Vinci again returned to the idea dynamic composition with a galloping horse.

In 1511 troops Pope JuliaII in alliance with Venetian Republic and Spain expelled the French. During 1511-1512 Leonardo lived for a long time with his friend, the nobleman Girolamo Melzi, on his estate in Vaprio. Girolamo's son, Francesco, became a student and passionate admirer of the aging master. In 1513, Leo X de' Medici was elected to the papal throne, with whose brother, Giuliano, who was interested in alchemy, Leonardo da Vinci was friendly. On September 14, 1513 Leonardo left for Rome. Giuliano assigned him a salary and allocated premises for work. In Rome, the master drew up projects for the refurbishment of the papal mint and the drainage of the Pontic swamps. Vasari noted that for the papal datarius (chief of the chancellery) Baldassare Turini of Pescia, Leonardo da Vinci completed two paintings - “Madonna” and an image of “a child of amazing beauty and grace” (not traced).

On December 31, 1514, Louis XII died, and Francis I, who succeeded him, recaptured Milan in September 1515. It is believed that Leonardo met with the king in Bologna, where the pope negotiated with him. But, perhaps, the artist saw him earlier - in Pavia, at the celebrations in honor of his entry into the city, and then he made the famous mechanical lion, from whose opening chest lilies poured out. In this case, in Bologna, Leonardo da Vinci was in the retinue of Francis, and not Leo X. Having received an offer to go to the king’s service, the master left for France in the fall of 1516 with Francesco Melzi. Last years Leonardo da Vinci's life was spent in the small castle of Cloux, near Amboise. He was given a pension of 700 ecus. In the spring of 1517, in Amboise, where the king loved to be, they celebrated the baptism of the Dauphin, and then the wedding of the Duke of Urbino Lorenzo de' Medici and the daughter of the Duke of Bourbon. The celebrations were designed by Leonardo. In addition, he was involved in the design of canals and locks to improve the area, and created architectural projects, in particular a project for the reconstruction of the Romorantin castle. Perhaps the ideas of Leonardo da Vinci served as the basis for the construction of Chambord (begun in 1519). On October 18, 1516, Leonardo was visited by the secretary of Cardinal Louis of Aragon. According to him, due to the paralysis of his right hand, the artist “can no longer write with his usual tenderness... but he can still make drawings and teach others.” On April 23, 1519, the artist made a will, according to which manuscripts, drawings and paintings became the property of Melzi. The master died on May 2, 1519, according to legend - in the arms of the King of France. Melzi transported Leonardo da Vinci's manuscripts to Italy and kept them on his estate in Vaprio until the end of his days. The now widely known “Treatise on Painting,” which had a huge influence on European art, was compiled by Melzi based on the teacher’s notes. About seven thousand sheets of Leonardo da Vinci's manuscripts have survived. Their largest collections are in the collection of the Institute of France in Paris; in Milan - in the Ambrosian Library (Codex Atlanticus) and in the Castello Sforzesco (Codex Trivulzio); in Turin (Bird Flight Code); Windsor and Madrid. Their publication began in the 19th century. and still one of the best critical editions of Leonardo's manuscripts are two volumes of texts with commentaries published by Richter in 1883 (Richter J.P. The literary works of Leonardo da Vinci. London, 1883. Vol. 1-2). Supplemented and commented by K. Pedretti, they were published a second time in Los Angeles in 1977.

Literature:Leonardo da Vinci. A book about painting. M., 1934; Leonardo da Vinci. Selected works. L., 1935; Leonardo da Vinci. Anatomy. Ideas and drawings. M., 1965; Vasari 2001. T. 3; Seail G. Leonardo da Vinci as an artist and scientist. St. Petersburg, 1898; Volynsky A. Life of Leonardo da Vinci. St. Petersburg, 1900 (republished: St. Petersburg, 1997); Benoit A. N. History of painting of all times and peoples. St. Petersburg, 1912; Wrangel N."Benois Madonna" by Leonardo da Vinci. St. Petersburg, 1914; Lipgart E.K. Leonardo and his school. L., 1928; Dzhivelegov A.K. Leonardo da Vinci. M., 1935 (republished: M., 1969); Lazarev V.N. Leonardo da Vinci. L., 1936; Ainalov D. V. Sketches about Leonardo da Vinci. M., 1939; Gukovsky M. A. Mechanics of Leonardo da Vinci. M., 1947; Lazarev V.N. Leonardo da Vinci. M., 1952; Alpatov M. V. Leonardo da Vinci. M., 1952; Gabrichevsky A. G. Leonardo the Architect // Soviet Architecture. M., 1952. Issue. 3; Zhdanov D. A. Leonardo da Vinci - anatomist. L., 1955; Gukovsky M. A. Leonardo da Vinci: Creative biography. M.; L., 1958; Gukovsky M. A. Madonna Litta: Painting by Leonardo da Vinci in the Hermitage. L.; M., 1959; Guber A. Leonardo da Vinci. M., 1960; Zubov V. P. Leonardo da Vinci. 1452-1519. M., 1961; Gukovsky M. A. Columbine. L., 1963; Rutenburg V. I. Titans of the Renaissance. L., 1976; Vipper 1977. T. 2; Nardini B. Life of Leonardo da Vinci. M., 1978; Kustodieva T.K."Benois Madonna" by Leonardo da Vinci. L., 1979; Rzepinska M. What do we know about the “Lady with an Ermine” from the Czartoryski Museum. Krakow, 1980; Gastev A. A. Leonardo da Vinci. M., 1982; Codex Leonardo from the private collection of Armand Hammer: Ext. L., 1984; Pedretti K. Leonardo. M., 1986; Smirnova I. A. Monumental painting of the Italian Renaissance. M., 1987; Batkin L. M. Leonardo da Vinci and the features of Renaissance creative thinking. M., 1990; Santi B. Leonardo da Vinci. M., 1995; Wallace R. World of Leonardo, 1452-1519. M., 1997; Kustodieva 1998; Chunky M. Leonardo da Vinci. M., 1998; Sonina T.V.“Madonna Benois” by Leonardo da Vinci // Italian collection. St. Petersburg, 1999. Issue. 3; Sonina T.V.“Madonna of the Rocks” by Leonardo da Vinci: Semantics of the image // Decree. Op. St. Petersburg, 2003. Issue. 7; Leonardo da Vinci and the culture of the Renaissance: Sat. Art. M., 2004; Herzfeld M. About one sheet of Leonardo's sketches. Contribution to the characterization of the master’s image // Italian collection. St. Petersburg, 2006. Issue. 9; Clark K. Leonardo da Vinci: Creative biography. St. Petersburg, 2009.

Richter J.P. (ed.) The Literary Works of Leonardo da Vinci: In 2 vols. London, 1883 (rev.: 1970); Beltrami L.(ed.) Il codice di Leonardo da Vinci della Biblioteca del Principe Trivulzio in Milano. Milano, 1891; Sabachnikoff T., Piumati G., Ravaisson-Mollien C. (eds.) I manoscritti di Leonardo da Vinci: Codice sul volo degli uccelli e varie altre materie. Paris, 1893; Piumati G. (ed.) Il Codice Atlantico di Leonardo da Vinci nella Biblioteca Ambrosiana di Milano: 35 voi. Milano, 1894-1904; Fonahn D.C.L., Hopstock H. (eds.) Quaderni d'anatomia: 6 voi. Kristiania, 1911-1916; II Codice Forster I, etc. // Reale Commissione Vinciana: 5 voi. Roma, 1930-1936; I manoscritti e i disegni di Leonardo da Vinci: II Codice A. / / Reale Commissione Vinciana. Rome, 1938; MacCurdy E. (ed.) The Notebooks of Leonardo da Vinci: 2 vols. London, 1938; I manoscritti e i disegni di Leonardo da Vinci: II Codice B. // Reale Commissione Vinciana. Rome, 1941; Brizio A. M. (ed.) Scritti scelti di Leonardo da Vinci. Torino, 1952; Courbeau A., De Toni N.(ed.) The Manuscripts in the Bibliotheque de l'Institut de France, Paris. Firenze, 1972; Reti L. (ed.) The Madrid Codices: 5 vols. New York, 1974.

Pacioli L. De divina proportione. Venezia, 1509; Alberimi E Memoriale di molte statue e picture che sono nella inclyta cipta di Florentia. Firenze, 1510; Giovio P. Elogia virorum illustrum (MS.; e. 1527) // Gli elogi degli uomini illustri / Ed. R. Meregazzi. Rome, 1972; II Codice Magliabechiano (MS.; e. 1540) / Ed. C. Frey. Berlin, 1892. Amoretti C. Memorie storiche su la vita, gli studi e le opere di Leonardo da Vinci. Milano, 1804; Pater W. Leonardo da Vinci (1869) // Studies in this History of this Renaissance. London, 1873; HerzfeldM. Leonardo da Vinci. Der Denker, Forscher und Poet. Jena, 1906; Solmi E. Le fonti dei manoscritti di Leonardo da Vinci. Torino, 1908; Malaguzzi Valeri E La corte di Ludovico il Moro. Milano, 1915. Voi. II: Bramante e Leonardo; Beltrami L. Documenti e memorie riguardanti la vita e le opere di Leonardo da Vinci. Milano, 1919; Calvi G. I manoscritti di Leonardo da Vinci del punto di visto cronologico, storico e biografico. Bologna, 1925; Heydenreich L. Leonardo da Vinci: 2 vols. Basel, 1954; Pomilio M., Della Chiesa A. O. L "Opera pittorica completa di Leonardo. Milano, 1967; Gould C. Leonardo: The Artist and Non-artist. London, 1975; Wasserman J. Leonardo da Vinci. New York, 1975; Chastel A. The Genius of Leonardo da Vinci: Leonardo da Vinci and their Art of the Artist. New York, 1981; Kemp M. Leonardo da Vinci: The Marvelous Works of Nature and Man. London, 1981; MaraniP. Leonardo: Cat. compi. Firenze, 1989; Turner A.R. Inventing Leonardo. New York, 1993; Lo sguardo degli angeli: Verrocchio, Leonardo e il Battesimo di Cristo / A cura di A. Natali. Firenze, 1998; Kustodieva T, PaolucciA., Pedretti C., Strinati C. Leonardo. La Madonna Litta dall "Ermitage di San Pietroburgo. Roma, 2003; Kemp M. Leonardo da Vinci. Experience, Experiment and Design. London, 2006.

Certain trends in the art of the High Renaissance were anticipated in the work of outstanding artists of the 15th century and were expressed in the desire for grandeur, monumentalization and generalization of the image. However, the true founder of the High Renaissance style was Leonardo da Vinci, a genius whose work marked a grandiose qualitative shift in art. The significance of his comprehensive activities, scientific and artistic, became clear only when Leonardo's scattered manuscripts were examined. His notes and drawings contain brilliant insights in various fields of science and technology. He was, as Engels put it, “not only a great painter, but also a great mathematician, mechanic and engineer, to whom the most diverse branches of physics owe important discoveries.”

For the Italian artist, art was a means of understanding the world. Many of his sketches serve as illustrations scientific work, and at the same time these are works high art. Leonardo embodied a new type of artist - a scientist, a thinker, striking in his breadth of views and versatility of talent. Leonardo was born in the village of Anchiano, near the city of Vinci. He was the illegitimate son of a notary and a simple peasant woman. He studied in Florence, in the studio of the sculptor and painter Andrea Verrocchio. One of the early works of the young artist - the figure of an angel in Verrocchio's painting "Baptism" (Florence, Uffizi) - stands out among the frozen characters with its subtle spirituality and testifies to the maturity of its creator.

Among Leonardo’s early works is the “Madonna with a Flower” (the so-called “Benois Madonna,” circa 1478), kept in the Hermitage, which is decidedly different from the numerous Madonnas of the 15th century. Refusing the genre and careful detailing inherent in the works of the early Renaissance masters, Leonardo deepens the characteristics and generalizes the forms. The figures of a young mother and baby, subtly modeled by side light, fill almost the entire space of the picture. The movements of the figures, organically connected with each other, are natural and plastic. They stand out clearly against the dark background of the wall. Opening window is clean blue sky connects the figures with nature, with the vast world dominated by man. In the balanced construction of the composition, an internal pattern is felt. But it does not exclude the warmth, the naive charm observed in life.

Madonna with the Infants Christ and John
Baptist, around 1490, private collection

Savior of the world
around 1500, private collection

In 1480, Leonardo already had his own workshop and received orders. However, his passion for science often distracted him from his studies in art. The large altar composition “Adoration of the Magi” (Florence, Uffizi) and “Saint Jerome” (Rome, Vatican Pinacoteca) remained unfinished. In the first, the artist sought to transform the complex monumental composition of the altar image into a pyramid-shaped, easily visible group, to convey the depth of human feelings. In the second - to a truthful depiction of complex angles of the human body, the space of the landscape. Not finding proper appreciation of his talent at the court of Lorenzo de' Medici, with his cult of exquisite sophistication, Leonardo entered the service of the Duke of Milan, Lodovico Moro. The Milan period of Leonardo's work (1482–1499) turned out to be the most fruitful. Here the versatility of his talent as a scientist, inventor and artist was revealed in full force.

He began his activity with the execution of a sculptural monument - equestrian statue father of Duke Ludovico Moro Francesco Sforza. The large model of the monument, which was unanimously praised by contemporaries, was destroyed during the capture of Milan by the French in 1499. Only drawings have survived - sketches of various versions of the monument, images of either a rearing horse, full of dynamics, or a solemnly performing horse, reminiscent of the compositional solutions of Donatello and Verrocchio. Apparently, this last option was turned into a model of the statue. It was significantly larger in size than the monuments of Gattamelata and Colleoni, which gave rise to contemporaries and Leonardo himself to call the monument “the great colossus.” This work allows us to consider Leonardo one of the largest sculptors of that time.

Not a single completed architectural project by Leonardo has reached us. And yet his drawings and designs of buildings, plans for creating an ideal city speak of his gift as an outstanding architect. The Milanese period includes paintings of a mature style - “Madonna in the Grotto” and “The Last Supper”. “Madonna in the Grotto” (1483–1494, Paris, Louvre) is the first monumental altar composition of the High Renaissance. Her characters Mary, John, Christ and the angel acquired features of greatness, poetic spirituality and fullness of life expressiveness. United by a mood of thoughtfulness and action - the infant Christ blesses John - in a harmonious pyramidal group, as if fanned by a light haze of chiaroscuro, the characters of the gospel legend seem to be the embodiment of ideal images of peaceful happiness.

(attribution to Carlo Pedretti), 1505,
Museum of the Ancient People of Lucania,
Vallo Basilicata, Italy

The most significant of Leonardo’s monumental paintings, “The Last Supper,” executed in 1495–1497 for the monastery of Santa Maria della Grazie in Milan, takes you into the world of real passions and dramatic feelings. Departing from the traditional interpretation of the Gospel episode, Leonardo gives an innovative solution to the theme, a composition that deeply reveals human feelings and experiences. Having minimized the outline of the refectory furnishings, deliberately reducing the size of the table and pushing it to the foreground, he focuses attention on the dramatic climax of the event, on the contrasting characteristics of people of different temperaments, the manifestation of a complex range of feelings, expressed in both facial expressions and gestures, with which the apostles respond to the words of Christ: “One of you will betray me.” A decisive contrast to the apostles is provided by the images of an outwardly calm, but sadly pensive Christ, located in the center of the composition, and the traitor Judas, leaning on the edge of the table, whose rough, predatory profile is immersed in shadow. Confusion, emphasized by the gesture of his hand frantically clutching his wallet, and his gloomy appearance distinguish him from the other apostles, on whose illuminated faces one can read an expression of surprise, compassion, and indignation. Leonardo does not separate the figure of Judas from the other apostles, as the early Renaissance masters did. And yet the repulsive appearance of Judas reveals the idea of ​​betrayal more sharply and deeply. All twelve disciples of Christ are located in groups of three, on either side of the teacher. Some of them jump up from their seats in excitement, turning to Christ. The artist subordinates the various internal movements of the apostles to a strict order. The composition of the fresco amazes with its unity, integrity, it is strictly balanced, centric in construction. The monumentalization of the images and the scale of the painting contribute to the impression of the deep significance of the image, subordinating the entire large space of the refectory. Leonardo brilliantly solves the problem of the synthesis of painting and architecture. By placing the table parallel to the wall that the fresco adorns, he asserts its plane. The perspective reduction of the side walls depicted on the fresco seems to continue the real space of the refectory.

The fresco is badly damaged. Leonardo's experiments using new materials did not stand the test of time; later recordings and restorations almost hid the original, which was cleared only in 1954. But the surviving engravings and preparatory drawings allow you to fill in all the details of the composition.

After Milan was captured by French troops, Leonardo left the city. Years of wandering began. Commissioned by the Florentine Republic, he made cardboard for the fresco “The Battle of Anghiari”, which was to decorate one of the walls of the Council Chamber in the Palazzo Vecchio (city government building). When creating this cardboard, Leonardo entered into competition with the young Michelangelo, who was executing an order for the fresco “The Battle of Cascina” for another wall of the same hall. However, these cardboards, which received universal recognition from their contemporaries, have not survived to this day. Only old copies and engravings allow us to judge the innovation of the geniuses of the High Renaissance in the field of battle painting.

In Leonardo's composition, full of drama and dynamics, an episode of the battle for the banner, a moment is given high voltage forces fighting, the cruel truth of war is revealed. The creation of a portrait of Mona Lisa (“La Gioconda”, circa 1504, Paris, Louvre), one of the most famous works of world painting, dates back to this time. The depth and significance of the created image is extraordinary, in which individual features are combined with great generalization. Leonardo's innovation was also evident in the development of Renaissance portraiture.

Plastically elaborated, closed in silhouette, majestic figure of a young woman dominates a distant landscape shrouded in a bluish haze with rocks and water channels winding among them. The complex, semi-fantastic landscape subtly harmonizes with the character and intelligence of the person being portrayed. It seems that the unsteady variability of life itself is felt in the expression of her face, enlivened by a subtle smile, in her calmly confident, penetrating gaze. The face and sleek hands of the patrician are painted with amazing care and gentleness. The thinnest, as if melting, haze of chiaroscuro (the so-called sfumato), enveloping the figure, softens the contours and shadows; There is not a single sharp stroke or angular contour in the picture.

In the last years of his life, Leonardo devoted most of his time to scientific research. He died in France, where he came at the invitation of the French King Francis I and where he lived for only two years. His art, scientific and theoretical research, and his very personality had a tremendous impact on the development of world culture. His manuscripts contain countless notes and drawings that testify to the universality of Leonardo's genius. There are carefully drawn flowers and trees, sketches of unknown tools, machines and apparatus. Along with analytically accurate images, there are drawings that are distinguished by their extraordinary scope, epicness or subtle lyricism. A passionate admirer of experimental knowledge, Leonardo strove for its critical understanding and search for generalizing laws. “Experience is the only source of knowledge,” said the artist. “The Book of Painting” reveals his views as a theorist realistic art, for whom painting is both “science and the legitimate daughter of nature.” The treatise contains Leonardo's statements on anatomy and perspective; he looks for patterns in the construction of a harmonious human figure, writes about the interaction of colors, and reflexes. Among Leonardo's followers and students, however, there was not a single one approaching the teacher in terms of talent; deprived of an independent view of art, they only externally assimilated his artistic style.

Name: Leonardo da Vinci

Place of Birth: near Vinci, Florentine Republic

A place of death: Castle of Clos-Lucé, near Amboise, Duchy of Touraine, Republic of Florence

Age: 67 years old

Leonardo da Vinci - biography

Leonardo da Vinci was called " universal person”, that is, a person whose activities and achievements were not limited to a single sphere. He was an artist, musician, writer, the most prominent representative of the art of the Renaissance. But the private, personal life of a genius is covered in secrets and mysteries. Perhaps this is due to a lack of information, or maybe it’s all about the mysterious figure of the Italian master.

Leonardo da Vinci - childhood

Leonardo da Vinci, whose biography is of great interest to fans of this greatest artist born on April 15, 1452 near the city, whose name today is associated primarily with the names of great painters.

The future artist was born near Florence, in the middle of the 15th century. His father was a notary, and his mother was a peasant. Such a misalliance could not exist, and soon Leonardo’s father found himself a more suitable wife - a girl from a noble family. Until the age of three, the child lived with his mother, and after that his father took him into his family. All subsequent years, the painter tried to recreate the image of his mother on canvas.

For some time, his father fiercely sought to instill in Leonardo a love for the family business. But his efforts were fruitless: his son was not interested in the laws of society.

At the age of fourteen, Leonardo went to Florence and became an apprentice to the sculptor and painter Andrea del Verrocchio. In those days, Florence was the intellectual center of Italy, which allowed the young man to combine work with study. He learned the basics of drawing and chemistry. But most of all he was interested in drawing, sculpture and modeling.

The main feature of the masterpieces of the Renaissance is a return to the ideals of Antiquity. During this era, the ancient Greek canons received new life. Students and seasoned masters discussed and argued about revolutionary events in culture and art. Leonardo did not take part in these disputes. He worked more and more, spending days in the workshop.

It would be unfair to miss one of the important facts in the biography of Leonardo da Vinci. One day his teacher received an order. The painting “The Baptism of Christ” was to be painted. According to the traditions of that time, he entrusted two fragments to his young student. Leonardo was commissioned to depict the angels.

When the painting was ready, Verrocchio looked at the canvas and threw down his brush in anger. Some fragments clearly indicated that the student had significantly outgrown the teacher in his skill. From then until the last hour of his life, Andrea del Verrocchio did not return to painting.

In the 15th century, there was an association of artists in Italy called the Guild of St. Luke. Membership in this guild allowed local artists to open their own workshops and sell their works on the official market. In addition, all members of the association were provided with financial and social support. As a rule, these were experienced and mature artists, sculptors and printers. Leonardo da Vinci joined the guild at the age of twenty.

Leonardo da Vinci - personal life

Little is known about the personal life of the titanic figure of the Renaissance. There are sources that talk about accusations of sodomy, that is, deviant sexual behavior. The accusation was based on an anonymous denunciation. But in those days in Florence, denunciation and slander flourished with violent force. The artist was arrested, kept in prison and released two months later due to lack of testimony.

In Florence, during the time of da Vinci, there was an organization called the “Officers of the Night.” The servants of this organization zealously monitored the moral character of the townspeople and actively fought against sodomists. For some time the painter was under the supervision of these fighters for morality. But this is according to one version.

And according to another, da Vinci was not accused of anything like that at all, and he was present at the trial solely as a witness. There is a third version, whose adherents claim that the sexual preferences of the great master were far from the generally accepted norm; the power and influence of his father allowed him to avoid imprisonment.

But be that as it may, there is no information in the biography about the painter’s relationships with women. According to the memoirs of contemporaries, he lived with young people for a long time. also did not stand aside from the debate about the sex life of the genius and conducted his own investigation. The famous psychotherapist was sure of Da Vinci's homosexuality.

For almost thirty years, Gian Giacomo Caprotti, better known today as Salai, lived in the maestro’s workshop. When Leonardo da Vinci was already a fully accomplished master, a boy of angelic beauty appeared in his house. His image is present in many masterpieces. But he was not just a model. Officially, he is considered a student. Salai's paintings were not widely known.

But according to the entries in da Vinci’s diary, the aspiring artist was not distinguished by honesty and, at times, behaved like the last scoundrel. What made the great painter keep this man next to him is not known. But it was hardly paternal feelings or admiration for young talent. Da Vinci's student did not write anything great, and he was not an orphan. All that remains is guesswork.

More than one painter emerged from the studio of Leonardo da Vinci. The master devoted a lot of time, first of all, to training young people. According to his methodology, the aspiring artist had to first study the shapes of objects, learn to copy the works of the master, examine the creations of other experienced authors, and only then begin to create his own work.

What kind of relationship a genius had with his followers in his free time from teaching is not so important. The important thing is that the master’s lessons were not in vain, and they subsequently managed to create a new image of the male body, sensuality and love.

The end of the life of Leonardo Da Vinci

Leonardo Da Vicci died on May 2, 1519 at the age of 67 years. His body was interred in a place near Ambauze. All his drawings and tools were transferred to his favorite student Francesco Melzi. All the paintings were inherited by his other student, Salai. 23917

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MINISTRY OF EDUCATION OF THE RUSSIAN FEDERATION

on the topic: The works of Leonardo Da Vinci

Moscow 2013

1. The personality of Leonardo Da Vinci

3. Creativity, science, inventions

4. Students

5. Sunset of life

6. Secrets of Leonardo

Conclusion

Bibliography

1. Lpersonality LLeonardo Da Vinci

Self-portrait. 1512 (1452-1519)

Leonardo- this is the name of a researcher of mysterious phenomena, a creator who disturbs the imagination, smiles behind which lies an unknown depth, and hands pointing into the unknown, into the mountain heights. People will call him the Italian Faust. Being a magician for his contemporaries, he continues to reveal the world to us to this day.

Everything about Leonardo's personality is shrouded in shadow. The mystery lies from birth. He was the illegitimate son of a woman about whom nothing is known. We don’t know her last name, age, appearance, we don’t know whether she was smart or stupid, whether she studied anything or not. Leonardo's father Piero da Vinci was a notary. April 15, 1452, it was these people who were born genius of the Renaissance.

2. Youth

We don’t know anything about how Leonardo’s childhood went. Among more than seven thousand of the artist’s manuscripts that have survived to this day, there is not a single one that concerns his youth.

Once, while setting out on paper the theory of river formation, he dropped the name of the village in which he lived as a child - Anhiano - and immediately crossed out this word.

One of the oldest accounts of Leonardo's life contains a story that sheds light on his nature. It tells how one day a peasant approached Piero da Vinci and showed him a round shield carved from wood. He asked Messer Piero to take this shield to Florence so that some artist would paint it. Messer Piero was indebted to this peasant, so he agreed, but gave the shield not to the artist, but to Leonardo. The young man decided to draw the head of Medusa, so as to scare the viewer. He brought leeches, caterpillars, lizards and other creatures into the basement, and looking at them, Leonardo created an image of a monster. The artist was very absorbed in his work, so he did not notice the corpse smell that reigned around.

Messer Pierrot forgot about the shield and, seeing the creation, was afraid. He warmly approved of his son's idea. But after that, he bought a shield with a pierced heart painted on it from a junk dealer and gave it to a peasant, who was grateful until the end of his days. And he sold the work that belonged to Leonardo for one hundred ducats.

Piero recognized his son's talent and, when the boy was fifteen years old, allowed him to become an apprentice in the artist's studio. Afterwards, Leonardo became an apprentice to Verrocchio. Despite the fact that the master suffered the fate of being surpassed by his own student, he should be recognized as a man of truly great talent. The relationship between Leonardo and Verrocchio was apparently cordial. Not far from Verrocchio's workshop was the rival workshop of Antonio del Pollio. Leonardo was surrounded by the works of his predecessors; he was able to see their paintings and listen to debates about art. The architecture of Florence itself could well serve as a school.

According to Vasari, Leonardo had a habit of wandering the streets in search of beautiful or ugly faces. He was “so happy when he noticed a funny face that he began to chase the person, and could do this all day, and when he returned home, he drew his head as well as if the person was sitting in front of him.” So, gypsy baron Scaramuccia is one of many models, voluntary or involuntary, whose images fill the pages of Leonardo's notebooks. Ugly faces especially attracted him. Da Vinci believed that ugliness is the other side of beauty, which must be approached with the same attention.

When Leonardo painted without any purpose, that is, just to have fun, he most often covered the paper with profiles. This became his habit. He made dozens of sketches, more or less similar: a stern, almost ferocious old man and a handsome, almost feminine young man. Without going beyond art, we can say that they symbolize the clash of grace and imagination with the harsh discipline of a scientific approach to the subject.

It's amazing that for sixty-seven years he created it like this few paintings- just over twelve. It was only in the second half of the twentieth century that critics were able to recognize which paintings really belonged to Leonardo.

3. Creativity, science, inventions

One of the difficulties of identification relates to his evolution as an artist: his works, which mark the High Renaissance, are so perfect that it is sometimes difficult to accept that his earlier works were painted by the same hand.

Painting Mona Lisa (La Gioconda). 1503-04

Other The difficulty stems from the strong influence he exerted not only artistically, but also intellectually. This was the reason that many imitative works were created over several centuries.

Third the problem relates to the custom of the time to work together. Such collective work It is very difficult to identify Leonardo's hand.

Fortunately, in all this confusion there is absolutely certainty: early paintings Leonardo is beyond any suspicion. Vasari specifically mentions to us that Verrocchio wrote The Baptism of Christ together with his student Leonardo.

Painting "The Baptism of Christ"

And that da Vinci painted two angels in it that look better than all the other figures. It is worth noting that after writing The Baptism of Christ, Verrocchio left paint alone forever. Leonardo's youthful work, as the first development of a theme by a novice composer, speaks a lot about the possibilities that would develop and improve in the future.

The pose of the graceful figure dressed in a blue cloak is free and graceful. The turn of the head, bent knees and arms suggest that the angel has just assumed this pose and is still in motion. He is deeply concerned with the action taking place and focuses his attention on the sacred rite; in contrast, Verrocchio's neighboring angel stares into space, like a bored extra or a parishioner waiting for the end of an overlong sermon.

In the face of the angel Leonardo the artist’s ideas about human beauty are already concentrated: softness, some femininity, slightly blurred contours and the famous, subtle smile. Curly hair speaks of a lifelong attraction to sinuous, whimsical lines; the grass breaking through the stones near the angel speaks of the artist’s deep perception of nature.

Leonardo made a significant contribution to the landscape of the Epiphany. The ponds and fogs depicted on the canvas were of sunny color and the play of shadows, anticipating the magical, almost unreal landscape of the Monna Lisa, not at all in the style of Verrocchio. Leonardo is here uses aerial perspective, which is very different from Brunelleschi's perspective. According to dictionaries, aerial perspective is the creation of depth in an image using gradations of color and rendered detail. Leonardo thought a lot about the atmosphere and air and believed that it was an almost tangible mass of particles between the eye and the visible object, a transparent ocean in which all objects are immersed.

The air, filled with light and shadow, fog and humidity, performs a connecting function, thereby achieving the relationship between the foreground and background.

Leonardo devoted many years of his life and many pages of his manuscripts to the study of the atmosphere and its depiction in paintings.

Already at this time, Leonardo considered the landscape not only a background for depicting human figures. He saw man in all the complexity of his environment as an integral part of nature. Shortly after the Baptism, Leonardo made a drawing that the German scientist Heidenreich considers to be the first true landscape in art. This drawing was done in pen and captures the Arno Valley from above. It is made with quick, cursory strokes that give it an oriental flavor. It is full of movement, the vibration of water and the trembling of leaves;

he says that Leonardo worked on location. Here he is a master in depicting the effects of light and depth of atmosphere. This is one of the few accurately dated drawings by Leonardo. It bears the inscription "St. Mary's Day in the Snows, August 5, 1473."

Painting St. Mary's Day in the snow

After this drawing, complete confusion ensues regarding the dates and ownership of the artist’s brush.

Portrait Ginerva de Benci 1473 - 1474

There was a custom - just like now - to take portraits of young ladies before the wedding, which Ginerva took place in January 1474.

The painting is damaged. Part of the canvas is cut off from the bottom, exactly in the place where the girl’s hands were.

Perhaps Ginerva was truly cold or life circumstances forced her into a loveless marriage, in any case, it is difficult to avoid the feeling that Leonardo did not like her - or that he did not like all women. The picture is permeated with a melancholic mood, painted in dark, twilight colors. The pallor of Ginerva's face contrasts sharply with the dark mass of foliage behind her (it depicts a juniper tree, which the Italians call "Ginerva"). The background of the painting is immersed in a thick fog, created using oil strokes superimposed on one another, which soften the contours of the objects and make their forms unclear.

This effect is called bustle. A gentle, enveloping fog creates an atmosphere similar to a dream, and in it the inner nature of objects and people is revealed more deeply than in the harsh light of day.

After the portrait of Ginerva, Leonardo enters a period of his life filled with the theme of the Madonna and Child.

Painting Madonna Lita

From approximately 1476 to 1480, he created a series of studies on this topic. Some of them turned into paintings, while others remained sketches. As for the paintings, “Madonna with a Flower”, “Madonna Lita” and “Madonna Benois” (both in St. Petersburg) are in such poor condition that only the details can belong to Leonardo.

Where time and the brush of another artist have spared these canvases, the viewer can fully enjoy the landscape, beautifully painted corners of nature, the beauty of hands, curls, draperies, which could hardly have been created by anyone else.

The preliminary sketches that Leonardo always kept in front of him when he painted his Madonnas - some of which were never turned into paintings - are of the greatest interest to researchers. One such sketch, now in Windsor Castle in England, shows the Madonna and Child with the infant Saint John - the earliest composition of its kind by Leonardo's hand. The Bible does not record that Jesus and John met as children - this is just a medieval version that had deep meaning for the artists of Florence, whose heavenly patron was John the Baptist. Although John in Leonardo's drawing looks completely natural and gives the impression of a simple addition to the composition, such a great authority in the history of the development of Renaissance art as Bernard Bernson pointed out that the addition of a saint leads to a precise balance of the composition, which thus takes on the appearance of a pyramid. Later, Leonardo significantly developed the pyramidal compositions, which became a kind of sign of the masters of the High Renaissance in general and Raphael in particular.

The freedom of lines and lightness of Leonardo’s pen continue the question: why is this lightness not present in the paintings depicting Madonnas, who

Still feel heavy? In the art of the Quattrocento there were two traditions unrelated to each other. One, represented by Fraphilippe and Botticelli, considered a whimsical line beautiful; the other, to which the teacher Leonardo Verrocchio belonged, insisted on a scientific approach to what was depicted. Leonardo's inclinations gravitated towards the first tradition, but his intellect and training inclined him towards the second.

In the art of the Renaissance, there were many “Adorations of the Magi,” in which both the Magi and the shepherds appeared. But Leonardo decided to leave the narrative for the sake of depicting the reverent feeling that an incredible event evokes in a Christian - the appearance of the Son of God on earth. He chose to interpret history and included all of humanity. One art historian counted sixty-six figures.

One of the first sketches is kept in the Louvre. On it you can see many figures clustered around the Madonna. This is a trial sketch, full of thoughts that were not developed in further work. Another sketch was made with a pen. Here Leonardo completely follows Brunelleschi: straight lines create a dominant point in the center, so that you want to touch it with your finger. However, the charm of the drawing is not due to the accuracy of perspective, but to the images of figures and animals. They are, to use words often used by modern artists, stormy, frantic, wild. Against the background of the ruins are horses, controlled by naked riders, rearing, resisting, kicking. Naked figures climb up the steps, and at the top, near the balcony, people and animals have merged in one frantic ball. Why did Leonardo create such a composition? The fact is that he felt the connection of everything in this world - trees, flowers, animals, people. All of them are overwhelmed by mystical impulses corresponding to the event. And if a person in such a state is able to scream, then why can’t a horse rear up?

In the center of the picture there is a kind of pyramid, the top of which is the head of the Madonna; the right diagonal is made up of the outstretched hand of a baby and the back of a kneeling sorcerer. The left diagonal goes through the bowed shoulder of the Madonna and the head of another bowed man. The pyramid is crowned with a dynamic arch of people. The symbolism of the picture is quite difficult to understand; one can say that the picture is even overloaded with these symbols. But still, some, well-known to everyone, lie on the surface: destroyed architectural structures - a symbol of the fall of paganism, long established in art; The palm tree standing above the baby and the Madonna is the tree of life.

Leonardo worked on this painting for only seven months. At that time, painting a canvas took much longer. Therefore, like many other creations of da Vinci, "Adoration" remained unfinished.

Painting "Worship"

It is this state that reveals to us the technique of chiaroscuro (modeling of light and shadow, contrast of light and shadow). His interest as an artist was not related to color or contour, but always to creating the effect of three-dimensional space.

It seems that the figures appear from the shadows and go into the shadows. Some parts come out convexly and are distinguishable, while others are almost imperceptible in the fog.

The painting “Saint Jerome” dates back to approximately the same time. It's also not finished. Since 1845 it has occupied a place of honor in the Vatican Gallery, although in an earlier period it experienced a less pleasant situation. Someone broke a wooden board into two parts, one of which served as a tabletop; both parts were discovered separately in Rome around 1820 by Cardinal Joseph Fesch. "Saint Hierophim" is very finely modeled in chiaroscuro technique, using black and white tones.

Painting "Saint Hierophim"

However, varnishing in the nineteenth century turned these tones into dull gold and olive. Leonardo imagined the saint in penitential ecstasy, beating himself in the chest with a stone. At the feet of the old man there is a lion - his mouth is open, but, obviously, he does not roar, but howls, filled with compassion for the torment of Jerome. The exhausted body of the saint is given in a complex turn. The lines of the picture are directed downward, starting from the leg up, from the left arm - horizontally, and all converge together in the chest, at the point where the stone should hit. Obviously Leonardo is passionate about the theory of the painting itself. Jerome was a thinker with a very wide range of interests. The thirst for knowledge became the most powerful temptation for the saint, as well as for da Vinci. It is the fight against temptation that is depicted in the picture.

Another painting from the early period of Leonardo’s work is known. Unlike the others, it remained intact. But its place of writing and time are controversial. Most likely, the Madonna of the Rocks dates back to 1482.

Painting "Madonna of the Rocks"

This painting is a kind of mystical revelation. The environment surrounding the Madonna is not of earthly origin - water, a cave open to the sky, giving shelter to the Madonna, the Angel, the infant Christ and John. All the figures are extremely graceful, their gestures are relaxed, the details of the landscapes are as true as if they were depicted by the most skilled geologist or botanist in painting.

"Madonna of the Rocks" is full of symbols and allusions that lie beyond human understanding. They show us Leonardo from the most mysterious side. What is the meaning of the angel's gesture pointing to Christ and John?

Is the cave intentionally drawn as a womb-like space, symbolizing the beginning of life? And why did Leonardo depict the original natural elements in the background - water, stones and the sun? Scientists are wondering about the answers to these questions, but Leonardo himself, like many other artists, made no effort to explain anything in this picture. In the center perhaps the most amazing game hand, which the history of art has ever known: protection, worship, blessing, direction. Breaking away from the center, it becomes clear that in this picture Leonardo embodied all his knowledge. The composition of the picture is, as in many other cases, a familiar pyramid. No matter how or where “Madonna of the Rocks” was written, it becomes clear that with this creation da Vinci puts an end to the art of the Quattrocento. he mastered it to the end and surpassed the art Early Renaissance. Many years will pass before Leonardo takes on a new work of no lesser scale.

Leonardo's genius was great, so in eight years he won the trust of the Duke of Milan Sforza. But at court his talents were not used to their full potential. Da Vinci performed as a lutenist and singer, reciter, writer of ballads and satyr. At a time when he was carried away by the frivolous entertainments of the court, the thought of fast-flowing time appeared in his notes: “The river wave that you touch with your hand is the last one that is already flowing away and the first one that has just rushed in: the same thing happens with moments of time.” . In 1490, Sforza sent da Vinci to Pavia to follow his advice on building a church. Leonardo turned to the thoughts that occupied him most.

It was at this time that the first extensive notes appeared in Milan, which, together with painting, constituted his main legacy. He kept his own notes until the end of his life, interspersing them with others. The pages of the records were mixed up, but Leonardo hoped to bring everything into order, as evidenced by the 1508 record.

Da Vinci began writing his Treatise on Painting at the request of Sforza, who wanted to know which of the two arts - painting or sculpture - is more noble. But Leonardo, as often happens, did not complete his plan; he still continued to correct his treatise even before his death.

Due to inept policies, Sforza was overthrown and captured.

Leonardo remained in Milan for some time. He made several dispassionate notes about the disasters that befell the Duke, ending them with the words: “The Duke lost his position, his possessions and freedom and did not see any of his undertakings realized.” Then, together with Luca Pacioli and Salaino, Leonardo went to Florence, stopping along the way in Mantua and Venice for sightseeing.

It may seem to some that the seventeen years Leonardo spent at the Sforza court were wasted, if we remember the machines that were never built, the ideas that were never brought to life. However, it was at this time that da Vinci created his grandiose “Last Supper”, next to which usual life ordinary people may seem like a waste. The painting was painted by the master quickly, before he had time to leave Milan.

Painting "The Last Supper"

However, his artistic genius had not remained inactive even before that. The Louvre version of the “Madonna of the Rocks” was apparently painted at the beginning of his stay in Milan, and in 1483, when he had lived here for about a year, he began to realize Sforza’s dream - to sculpt the “Horse”, which in a sense was also his dream.

But work on “The Horse” was constantly interrupted - primarily due to the inability to stay long at the same work, as well as due to Sforza’s constant demands to turn to other matters. At one time, Leonardo was a court portrait painter: his first work in this capacity was a portrait of Lodovico’s mistress Cecilia Gallerani, apparently painted in 1484.

Cecilia was only seventeen years old when she was seduced by Lodovico. She bore him a son and took the highest position at his court. perfectly reflects the qualities that this woman apparently was endowed with. The expression of her intelligent face is insightful and concentrated, her fingers are long and sensitive - the kind that musicians or libertines have. The background was repainted by the artist Ambrogio da Predis, with whom Leonardo collaborated; as a result, the face contrasts sharply with the black background without any sfumato or chiaroscuro by Leonardo.

Portrait "Lady with an ermine"

However, the modeling of the face and the ermine give away the authorship: the complex turn of the lady’s head, the snake-like pose of the animal could only have been invented by Leonardo. The size of the ermine and the proximity of its sharp, unkind muzzle to the neck cause a feeling of anxiety. There is no doubt why da Vinci depicted this animal in his painting. In one old book, the ermine is described as an extremely clean animal: “It prefers death to a dirty hole.”

Subsequently, Cicilia Gallerani was replaced in Sforza’s heart, first by his wife, and then by his new mistress Lucrezia, whose portrait Leonardo also painted. The location of the painting has not been determined. Some believe that this is the same portrait that is kept in the Louvre under the name “Beautiful Ferroniere”

Portrait "The Beautiful Ferroniere"

Not best work Leonardo, generally executed carelessly, with the exception of those details that aroused special interest in the artist. Only the ribbons falling on the lady’s shoulders are drawn with special care.

There remains one more portrait, painted by Leonardo during his early years in Milan, perhaps the least significant of all and the worst documented, but, ironically, the best preserved. This is the “Portrait of a Musician”, now kept in the Ambrosiana in Milan.

Painting “Portrait of a Musician”

In the portrait only the face is finished; in type it is close to the faces of Leonardo's angels. True, it is much more courageous, and the light modeling is such that it is in many ways reminiscent of Leonardo’s best works, if not for the later recording and a layer of varnish, due to which the colors darkened.

Several years ago the painting was cleared, and several musical notes were found on a piece of paper in the hand of the person depicted. Leonardo's researchers, who know his penchant for riddles and secrets, have so far tried to read this musical message to no avail.

Riddles, or rather, incredibly intricate interweaving of drawings, are a characteristic feature of the unique work that Leonardo performed in one of the Sforza halls, called the Donkey Hall. This is not painting in the proper sense of the word, but it is so much superior to ordinary decor that it is impossible to find a suitable name for it.

On the walls of the Donkey Hall, Leonardo painted green willow crowns: their branches and shoots are intertwined in the most fantastic way, and they are also entangled in thin decorative branches tied in endless knots and loops.

This painting gives the impression of almost sounding as if it were a musical fugue. Perhaps Leonardo, who spent days and even weeks drawing mysterious knots on paper, intended to develop his own symbol: one of the meanings of the word "vinci" is willow.

During the Milanese period of his life, architecture took up a significant part of Leonardo’s time. As a court architect and engineer, he supervised the completion and reconstruction of many buildings and gave advice on fortification.

Even when he was completely absorbed in working on The Last Supper, his concerns were still divided between painting and architecture, as many sketches testify.

In 1488, together with Bramante and other architects, he submitted plans and a wooden model to a competition for the design of the central dome of the Milan Cathedral. It was difficult to determine who influenced whom more in the field of architecture, but most likely Bramante was stronger. None of Leonardo’s architectural projects was brought to life in this way. Like many architects of the Early Renaissance, Bramante and Leonardo were concerned with the combination of a square and a circle in the design of the dome, which were considered perfect geometric shapes. In his sketches of temples, Leonardo brought the motifs of the circle to the point of logical conclusion- some of his projects are so overloaded with domes that they resemble the monuments of a multi-domed Byzantine or Russian basilica.

In the field of civil architecture, Leonardo was very picky, and although he was not very interested in it as such, he did design one little respected building - a brothel. His constant search for beautiful or ugly faces apparently led him one day to the "gay" quarter of Milan, where he discovered that the layout brothels, one might say, leaves much to be desired. He drew a house with straight corridors and three separate entrances, so that the client could easily enter and exit without fear of unwanted encounters.

Leonardo's latest architectural whim is an Egyptian-style mausoleum for members of the royal family (in general Leonardo had a strange penchant for the east). The mausoleum was conical in shape, the diameter of its base was about 60 meters, the height was 15 meters. It was supposed to be crowned with a round temple with a colonnade. It is not known what made Leonardo take on this project; A few notes for it and one sketch survive, after which the idea was apparently abandoned.

In 1495, at the request of Lodovico Sforza, Leonardo began painting his “Last Supper” on the wall of the refectory of the Dominican monastery of Santa Maria delle Grazie in Milan. This picture is so amazing both in itself and in the influence it had on contemporaries and descendants, so famous in the Western world, that discussing it is like touching on the topic of the Atlantic Ocean in a few words. Nevertheless, the discussion should begin by pointing out one fact that is so obvious that it seems to fall out of the field of view of researchers: in art there are very few compositional problems such as the problem of placing thirteen people at one flat table. Leonardo solves this problem so brilliantly, as if it did not exist at all; Every art lover (if he is able to erase the Last Supper from his memory as an experiment) can himself try to find an independent solution to this problem. Then he will understand how monstrously difficult it is.

The second difficulty was to highlight Judas so that the viewer would immediately recognize him. From the very beginning of Christian art until the time of Leonardo, this problem was usually solved this way: Christ and his eleven disciples were placed on one side, and Judas on the other. Even the artists of the Early Renaissance, who had already moved away from traditional interpretations of religious themes, as a rule, did not find best solution: This is clearly seen in the most famous “Last Suppers” of the Quattrocento, executed by Andrea del Castagno and Domenico Ghirlandaio, Michelangelo’s teacher.

Leonardo approached his “Last Supper” for fifteen years; in one of the sketches of “The Adoration of the Magi” a group of servants appears engaged in animated table conversation, next to them is the figure of Christ. And before the decisive moment, when he had to approach the wall of Santa Maria delle Grazie, he probably made many preliminary sketches; Among them, many drawings related to individual images have been preserved, and only two - to the composition as a whole. Almost until the very beginning of his work, he had little idea of ​​isolating Judas in the usual way; but his genius intervened.

Leonardo thought a lot about how to show human emotions in painting. One of the key phrases in his Treatise is: “ The artist has two goals: man and the manifestation of his soul. The first is simple, the second is difficult because he must reveal it through movement." It was just that grimaces were of no interest to him - with the exception of ugly faces; It was through movement and gesture that he tried to express his feelings. This is an exclusively Italian property, as Goethe wrote about it in his essay on “The Last Supper”: “The representatives of this people have a spiritualized body, every part of it, every member participates in the expression of feelings, passions, even thoughts.

Changing body positions and making a hand gesture, the Italian seems to be saying: “ That's my concern! - Come in! - There's a scoundrel in front of you- bebe careful with him! - His life will not last long! - This is the critical moment! “Listen and you will hear me!” This national peculiarity could only attract Leonardo, who was at the highest level of sensitivity to everything that was characteristic, and it is in this respect that the picture before us is stunningly unusual, so that, looking at it from this point of view, it is impossible to get enough of it.”

In his notes, Leonardo listed several gestures that seemed suitable to him for the painting - some of these gestures he kept, others he discarded. “The one who had just drunk put the glass on the table and turned his head towards the speaker (crossed out). Another clenched his fingers and turned to his neighbor with a frown (crossed out). The third extended his arms and opened his palms, his head pulled into his shoulders, surprise on his lips (St. Andrew). Another one says something in the ear of his neighbor, and he turned to him with keen interest, in his hands he has a knife (St. Peter) ... and another one, who is also holding a knife, turned and puts a glass on the table.” The last gesture was preserved, but somewhat modified and pushed back to Judas, who clutches not a knife in his hand, but a wallet with money and instead of a glass puts salt on the table, according to superstition, considered a symbol of threatening or inevitable evil.

The faces in the painting, with the exception of the face of Christ himself, were rumored to have been copied from ordinary people whom Leonardo met in Milan and the surrounding area. For the Lord, he apparently found two sitters, as his notes say: “Christ: Count Giovani, who serves at the court of Cardinal de Mortaro ... Alexandro Carissimo of Parma for the hands of Christ.” In the end, Christ becomes, as it were, a generalization: a deeply touching figure, correlated with eternity. Eternity, which Leonardo designated by a mantle of cold blue color descending from Christ’s shoulder - the color of detachment.

To paint Judas, Leonardo spent a lot of time visiting brothels frequented by Milanese criminals, so much so that Prior Santa Maria delle Grazie complained to Sforza about his “laziness.” Leonardo replied that he had difficulties - he seeks the face of Judas, but he can use the prior’s face if time is pressing.

Only a person who did not think anything of the work of a genius could accuse Leonardo of laziness. Leonardo wrote his creation in three years, and throughout this period the picture did not leave his head. The Italian writer Matteo Bandello, who attended a monastery school as a child and observed Leonardo at work, described him this way: “He often comes to the monastery at dawn... Hastily climbing the scaffolding, he works diligently until the approaching dusk forces him to stop; At the same time, he did not think about food at all - he was so absorbed in work. Sometimes Leonardo stayed here for three or four days, without touching the painting, he just came in and stood in front of it for several hours, crossing his arms and looking at his figures as if he was criticizing himself.”

People living nearby served as models for the apostles, and Leonardo surrounded them with objects everyday life, absolutely not caring about any archaism. He painted on the narrower wall of the monastery refectory. Opposite, on a raised platform stood the abbot's table. Between him and the painting were the monks' tables. In the picture, the tablecloth, knives, forks, and dishes are the same as they used. Leonardo led them to the idea that here, in this very place, Christ is present as a spiritual superior and eats the same food that they eat. The impression of the work, which was completed in 1498, was amazing: there was a mixture of reality and illusion, the room became, as it were, a continuation of the painting.

Of the two problems that the authors of the Last Supper faced over the centuries, the problem of singling out Judas was solved by Leonardo with the greatest ease. He placed Judas on the same side of the table as the others, but separated him psychologically with a loneliness that was far more crushing than mere physical withdrawal. Gloomy and concentrated, Judas retreated from Christ. It’s like there’s an age-old stamp of misfortune and loneliness on it. The other apostles, questioning, protesting, denying, still do not know which of them is the traitor - the viewer recognizes this immediately.

In the arrangement of figures that are one and a half times larger than natural ones, Leonardo used his mathematical knowledge. In the center - Christ, with his arms spread to the sides and lying on the table - visually fits into a triangle; the imaginary central point is just behind His head, and above it is the light pouring in from the main window. The twelve apostles are divided into two groups of six; together with Christ they form a composition of three groups. However, the groups of apostles are also divided into subgroups: there are four of them in each.

The traditional interpretation of the picture is that Christ has just spoken the words “One of you will betray Me.” Leonardo captured this tense moment forever. The apostles react to the words of Christ with a surprisingly diverse range of postures and gestures, showing us their state of mind - or, as is sometimes poorly translated, “state of mind.”

In addition to the tragedy of the dramatic moment, Leonardo obviously had in mind another, deeper meaning of what was happening. One of these meanings is associated with Christ’s gesture during the Last Supper - the affirmation of Holy Communion: “And while they were eating, Jesus, taking bread ... gave it to them and said: Take, eat; this is my body. And taking the cup... he said to them, “This is my blood...” His gesture presupposes the complete submission of those around Him to the Divine will, so that both betrayal and crucifixion are perceived as predetermined. “This is a symbol of man’s never-coming dream of salvation” - Luca Pacioli.

The entire painting is considered a masterpiece of linear perspective. Leonardo was faced with a problem related to the size of the wall. Andrea del Castagno, faced with a similar problem, drew the background first, and then the figures. This made Christ and the apostles appear in a monotonous row, like subway passengers. Leonardo decided to paint the figures first, and then the entire background, thanks to which the restrictions associated with the height of the walls were removed.

As planned, “The Last Supper” turned out to be such that there was nothing to compare it with. Leonardo worked not in afresco technique, but in tempera, using all the richness of color that it provides. He had to paint on a stone wall, and he found it necessary to first coat it with a special compound that would strengthen the soil and protect the painting from moisture. Leonardo made a composition of resin and mastic - and this marked the beginning of one of the greatest tragedies in the history of art. The refectory of Santa Maria delle Grazie was hastily repaired by order of Sforza: the builders filled the interior spaces with damp-holding rubble, but over time, acids and salts began to appear on the lime and on the old brick. In addition, the monastery was located in a lowland - Goethe noticed that in 1800, after a heavy rain, there was water in the room, flooding it by about half a meter, and suggested that the flood of 1500, known from the chronicles, caused the same, if not more flood

Dampness and corrosive discharge from the walls inexorably did their work: the paints began to peel off. In 1556, the painting was examined by Vasari. He wrote: “Nothing is visible except dirty spots.” A century later, a note appeared that it was almost impossible to see what was painted on the wall, except for individual details.

In the 17th and 17th centuries, “The Last Supper” was restored many times by completely unqualified artists. As a result, this only made the situation worse.

The outlines of the main figures still existed. Between 1946 and 1954 the painting was again restored by Mauro Pellicioli, a master of his craft, and what is now visible, as if through glass, clouded by years and covered with cobwebs, bears some resemblance to Leonardo's original. Nowadays the refectory is empty, the monks have left the monastery. Nearby there is a kiosk with excursion booklets, in the hall there are two photographers showing photographs showing the damage to the picture caused by a bomb of the Second World War.

The air is calm and cool - and full of such inexpressive loneliness that everyone involuntarily remembers here a friend or a loved one who has died or gone somewhere far away forever. And everyone feels tears welling up in their eyes.

Leonardo was about fifty years old when he returned to Florence. He was strong in spirit and felt his creative power. His mind sought to penetrate into the most distant reaches of the universe. “Sweetest analytics, it was you who kidnapped me!” - these words belonging to Christopher Marlowe's Faust can be safely attributed to da Vinci. The scientist in him began to displace the artist.

It is impossible for a scientist to evaluate Leonardo, since most of his manuscripts were lost. The rest are in such disorder that it is unlikely that anyone will be able to trace the evolution of his ideas in them.

However, some conclusions can be drawn. Leonardo is a titan of science. Mankind will discover many of his inventions much later.

Among the drawings, images of swirling water were found. This indicates Leonardo’s unusual vision. His eye could capture what became visible after the invention of slow motion filming and the camera. One of Leonardo's most famous anatomical drawings is of a fetus in the womb.

Erroneous in some details, in others - especially in the depiction of the position of the fetus and the umbilical cord - it is completely accurate and executed so professionally that even today it is used as an illustration in medical textbooks. The cross section of the skull was a first in the history of anatomy. Da Vinci's account speaks of the "merging of all meanings" at the intersection of the diagonal and the vertical line - he believed that all senses converged at this point. Shoes for walking on water obviously did not go beyond the sketch, but there is no doubt that they, with some modifications, could be used. The necessary invention was the lifebuoy. A simple listing of his extra-artistic interests seems incredible: anatomy, botany, cartography, geology, mathematics, aeronautics, optics, acoustics, civil engineering, weapons design, city planning... .

So why didn't he become one of the greatest scientific geniuses of all time?

The answer is: despite the activity of his creative nature, he was a scientist solely by vocation. All his notes and drawings remained secret; he did not allow anyone to look into them, study them or put them into practice. And this is the main reason for his failure as a scientist: after all, the achievements of the scientific mind are assessed by practical results, and Leonardo, who was prone to recluse, entered into only those relationships with the world that he considered necessary, and most often preferred to remain alone. Leonardo had no attachment to any political issue, since he was creative person. His commentary on the fall of Milan was therefore very brief and impersonal. But by 1499, da Vinci had already gained fame, and this saved him from having to go around and ask.

Leonardo's intention was to return to Florence, but he did so in a roundabout way. Da Vinci visited Mantua to view the frescoes of Andrea Mantegna. There he met an intelligent and extremely persistent lady - Marquise Isabella d'Este, sister-in-law of the Duke of Sforza. She demanded that Leonardo paint her portrait, and she got her way with all the power and cunning. In the end, the Marquise received only a drawing in which she was depicted with a stupid expression, a flabby chin and an ignoble appearance. However, even this did not discourage the desire to receive a portrait by Leonardo. She continued to haunt him for many years in a row and represented some kind of hindrance for the artist.

After leaving Mantua, Leonardo went to Venice. His stay there was short. During this time, da Vinci managed to significantly influence Venetian artists. Giorgione made his models throughout his life the deep modeling and shadow of Leonardo. However, he himself was so significant that he could not simply imitate Leonardo.

In the spring of 1500, da Vinci arrived in Florence. He found that the spiritual atmosphere there had completely changed. Five hundred years ago, as the thousandth year of Christ approached, the entire Christian world was gripped by religious hysteria, which sometimes bordered on madness. The end of the world, vaguely predicted in the Apocalypse, seemed about to come. And now in Florence, as the new midpoint approached, something similar was happening again. The Medici family lost power and were expelled. In the 1490s, the fanatical Dominican friar Savonarola gained enormous influence over the townspeople by delivering thunderous sermons about the end of the world. The Florentines built huge “bonfires of repentance”, throwing valuables into them. Ultimately, Savonarola was hanged and then burned in 1498. 2 years after this, when Leonardo returned to Florence, the atmosphere began to thicken again.

Leonardo did not like everything that Savonarola did, which he knew about by hearsay. It is unlikely that he was surprised by the death of the fanatic. But what was going on in art now? The spontaneity and gaiety of the Quattrocento disappeared. Botticelli and Filippino Lippi abandoned antiquity and turned to religious themes.

The teacher Leonardo Verrocchio died long ago, Ghirlandaio and Antonio del Pollaiolo also lay in their graves. True, a new star has appeared in the sky - a twenty-five-year-old Michelagelo. His fame truly rivaled that which Leonardo achieved only at the age of forty.

The master who returned to Florence was treated with respect. The Servite monks from the Monastery of the Annunciation ordered him an altar painting and provided him with space in their monastery, where Leonardo soon moved.

Da Vinci began to develop the plot completely independently. He began to do this long before the Servites turned to him. Leonardo worked on the theme of the Madonna and Child and her mother, Saint Anne, for 15 years. His last appeal to her was an unfinished painting, created many years after he left the Servites. The first attempt to approach the topic can be considered the so-called Burlington House Cardboard, purchased by the English government in our days and now in National Gallery in London. Leonardo created this cardboard in 1499. At first glance, the viewer feels unearthly beauty, but at the same time something unusual.

Gradually it comes to mind: Leonardo created a strange composition, he painted one adult woman on the lap of another. In real life, such a scene would look funny. But Leonardo's composition evokes no other feelings other than admiration. Two graceful women, between whom the age difference seems to have been erased, represent a surprisingly harmonious combination and are shrouded in a shimmering radiance. They are connected by the infant Christ blessing little John the Baptist. The cardboard is considered one of Leonardo's most beautiful works.

The second option was cardboard created specifically for the Servites (unfortunately lost). “When it was finished,” writes Vasare, “the room where it stood was constantly filled with men and women, young and old; such a crowd can only be seen at the most solemn holidays.” Leonardo presented Mary, Saint Anne and little John the Baptist with a lamb and, as the Marquise Isabella's envoy writes: "All the figures are drawn in life size, but are placed on a relatively small cardboard, because they are sitting or bent over." The Servites were not destined to receive a completed painting from Leonardo. The Marquise's correspondent reported that Leonardo had apparently lost interest in art:

“The sight of the brushes makes him angry.” However, other circumstances arose: Leonardo suddenly left the Servites and in 1502-1503 became a military engineer. His employer was Cesare Borgia, the toughest, ruthless and bloody tyrant of the Renaissance.

Da Vinci was with Cesare when he treacherously captured the Duchy of Urbino. It was here that Leonardo met the famous Niccolo Machiavelli, who was the ambassador of the Florentine Republic under the Borgia.

Leonardo and Machiavelli were drawn to each other. They soon became close.

Da Vinci left Cesare's service and returned to Florence in the spring of 1503. The question of why Leonardo threw in his lot with the Borgia is one of those that should be discussed along with questions about character. As for Machiavelli, he is one of the greatest figures in Leonardo's life.

He had a soft soul and was good friend. After both left the Borgia, Machiavelli, using his position, obtained one of the most serious orders for Leonardo - “The Battle of Anghiari”. The Florentines wished that the walls of the Señoria's meeting room be decorated with scenes from military history cities. The work was to be carried out by Leonardo and Mekelagelo.

In the Battle of Anghiari (1440), da Vinci was interested in only one episode: a fight between several cavalrymen that unfolded around a battle flag. Leonardo's sketches show that the artist intended to depict a general panorama of the battle, in the center of which there is a fight for the banner. To describe it in one sentence future fate painting, then we’ll say: the canvas is lost. The colors slowly faded over the course of sixty years. As was the case with The Last Supper, Leonardo experimented - and the experiment ended with the loss of the painting, which gradually crumbled.

And yet this picture has not completely disappeared. Several copies were taken from it and rewritten again. Ironically, this was done by Vasari, Leonardo's biographer. His very mediocre painting has been preserved in its original place.

Around 1605, another genius took up the matter - Peter Paul Rubens, who visited Italy and created something close to Leonardo's masterpiece.

About the time Leonardo was serving on the commission to determine the location of the marble David, and was still meditating on the cardboard for the Battle of Anghiari, he began to work on what became one of the most famous paintings on earth - over the Mona Lisa. In no other painting by Leonardo is the depth and haze of the atmosphere presented with such perfection as in the Mona Lisa. This aerial perspective is the best executed. However, first the viewer's gaze stops on the lady's face. The Mona Lisa was copied more often than other paintings.

She is unique - and the same can be considered her description made by Walter Pater: “This is the beauty that the sick soul strives for, all the experience of the world is collected here and embodied in the form of a woman... The animal nature in relation to life in Ancient Greece, the passion of the world, sins Borgia... She is older than the rocks, among which she sits like a vampire, she died many times and learned the secrets of the tomb, she plunged into the depths of the seas and traveled for precious fabrics with eastern merchants, like Leda, she was the mother of Helen the Beautiful, like St. Anna - the mother of Mary , and all this was for her nothing more than the sound of a lyre or a flute.” There is nothing to add to Pater's description of the face. The picture is so familiar to everyone, so imprinted in people's memory, that it is difficult to believe that it once looked different. However, this is a fact.

Nowadays, the Mona Lisa looks different than when it first came out of Leonardo’s hands. Once on the left and right of the picture there were tall columns, now cut off. Looking at them, it becomes clear that the lady is sitting on the balcony, and not suspended in the air, as it sometimes seems. As for the color scheme of the face, the crimson tones that Vasari mentioned are now completely invisible. The dark varnish changed the relationship of colors and created a vague underwater effect, which is further aggravated by the oyster light that weakly pours onto the picture from the ceiling windows

Grand gallery in the Louvre. These changes, however, are more unfortunate than tragic: the masterpiece has survived, and we should be grateful that it is in such excellent condition.

Mona Lisa was not, as many believe, Leonardo’s ideal of beauty: his ideal is more likely to be seen in the angel from “Madonna of the Rocks.” Still, Leonardo must consider the Mona Lisa special person: she made such a strong impression on him that he refused other lucrative offers.

The portrait reflected a unique human character. Mona Lisa was the third wife of a Florentine merchant named Francesco de Baltoromeo del Giocondo (hence the second name of the painting, “La Gioconda”). When the Mona Lisa first began posing for Leonardo, she was about twenty-four years old - middle age in those days. The portrait was a success - according to Vasari, “it was an exact copy of nature.” But Leonardo surpassed the possibilities of a portrait and made the model not just a woman, but a Woman with a capital W.

The individual and the general merge here into one. The artist's view of Woman may not coincide with the public one. Leonardo looks at his model with a disturbing insensibility. Mona Lisa seems simultaneously voluptuous and cold, beautiful and even disgusting. This effect is achieved through the relationship between the figure and the background. Monumentality greatly enhances the mixed feeling of charm and coolness that the Mona Lisa evokes: for centuries, men have looked at it with admiration, confusion and something close to horror.

As for the painting technique, Leonardo here brought his sfumato to perfection: twenty, or maybe a hundred glazes he put on the picture.

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During the Renaissance there were many brilliant sculptors, artists, musicians, and inventors. Leonardo da Vinci stands out against their background. He created musical instruments, he owned many engineering inventions, painted paintings, sculptures and much more.

His external characteristics are also amazing: tall height, angelic appearance and extraordinary strength. Let's get acquainted with the genius Leonardo da Vinci; a short biography will tell about his main achievements.

Biography facts

He was born near Florence in the small town of Vinci. Leonardo da Vinci was the illegitimate son of a famous and wealthy notary. His mother is an ordinary peasant woman. Since the father had no other children, at the age of 4 he took little Leonardo to live with him. The boy demonstrated his extraordinary intelligence and friendly character from a very early age, and he quickly became a favorite in the family.

To understand how the genius of Leonardo da Vinci developed, a brief biography can be presented as follows:

1. At the age of 14 he entered Verrocchio's workshop, where he studied drawing and sculpture.
2. In 1480 he moved to Milan, where he founded the Academy of Arts.
3. In 1499, he left Milan and began moving from city to city, where he built defensive structures. During this same period, his famous rivalry with Michelangelo began.
4. Since 1513 he has been working in Rome. Under Francis I, he becomes a court sage.

Leonardo died in 1519. As he believed, nothing he started was ever completed.

Creative path

The work of Leonardo da Vinci, whose brief biography was outlined above, can be divided into three stages.

1. Early period. Many works of the great painter were unfinished, such as the “Adoration of the Magi” for the monastery of San Donato. During this period, the paintings “Benois Madonna” and “Annunciation” were painted. Despite his young age, the painter already demonstrated high skill in his paintings.
2. Leonardo's mature period of creativity took place in Milan, where he planned to make a career as an engineer. Most popular work, written at this time, was “The Last Supper”, at the same time he began work on “Mona Lisa”.
3. In the late period of creativity, the painting “John the Baptist” and a series of drawings “The Flood” were created.

Painting always complemented science for Leonardo da Vinci, as he sought to capture reality.

Inventions

A short biography cannot fully convey Leonardo da Vinci's contribution to science. However, we can note the most famous and valuable discoveries of the scientist.

1. He made his greatest contribution to mechanics, as can be seen from his many drawings. Leonardo da Vinci studied the fall of a body, the centers of gravity of pyramids and much more.
2. He invented a car made of wood, which was driven by two springs. The car mechanism was equipped with a brake.
3. He came up with a spacesuit, fins and a submarine, as well as a way to dive to depth without using a spacesuit with a special gas mixture.
4. The study of dragonfly flight has led to the creation of several variants of wings for humans. The experiments were unsuccessful. However, then the scientist came up with a parachute.
5. He was involved in developments in the military industry. One of his proposals was chariots with cannons. He came up with a prototype of an armadillo and a tank.
6. Leonardo da Vinci made many developments in construction. Arch bridges, drainage machines and cranes are all his inventions.

There is no man like Leonardo da Vinci in history. That is why many consider him an alien from other worlds.

Five secrets of da Vinci

Today, many scientists are still puzzling over the legacy left by the great man of the past era. Although it’s not worth calling Leonardo da Vinci that way, he predicted a lot, and foresaw even more, creating his unique masterpieces and amazing with his breadth of knowledge and thought. We offer you five secrets of the great Master that help lift the veil of secrecy over his works.

Encryption

The master encrypted a lot in order not to present ideas openly, but to wait a little until humanity “ripened and grew up” to them. Equally good with both hands, da Vinci wrote with his left hand, in the smallest font, and even from right to left, and often in mirror image. Riddles, metaphors, puzzles - this is what is found on every line, in every work. Never signing his works, the Master left his marks, visible only to an attentive researcher. For example, after many centuries, scientists discovered that by looking closely at his paintings, you can find a symbol of a bird taking off. Or the famous “Benois Madonna,” found among traveling actors who carried the canvas as a home icon.

Sfumato

The idea of ​​dispersion also belongs to the great mystifier. Take a closer look at the canvases, all the objects do not reveal clear edges, just like in life: the smooth flow of one image into another, blurriness, dispersion - everything breathes, lives, awakening fantasies and thoughts. By the way, the Master often advised practicing such vision, peering into water stains, mud deposits or piles of ash. Often he deliberately fumigated his work areas with smoke in order to see in the clubs what was hidden beyond the reasonable eye.

Look at the famous painting - the smile of the “Mona Lisa” from different angles, sometimes tender, sometimes slightly arrogant and even predatory. The knowledge gained through the study of many sciences gave the Master the opportunity to invent perfect mechanisms that are becoming available only now. For example, this is the effect of wave propagation, the penetrating power of light, oscillatory motion... and many things still need to be analyzed not even by us, but by our descendants.

Analogies

Analogies are the main thing in all the works of the Master. The advantage over accuracy, when a third follows from two conclusions of the mind, is the inevitability of any analogy. And Da Vinci still has no equal in his whimsicality and drawing absolutely mind-blowing parallels. One way or another, all of his works have some ideas that are not consistent with each other: the famous “golden ratio” illustration is one of them. With limbs spread and apart, a person fits into a circle, with his arms closed into a square, and with his arms slightly raised into a cross. It was this kind of “mill” that gave the Florentine magician the idea of ​​​​creating churches, where the altar was placed exactly in the middle, and the worshipers stood in a circle. By the way, engineers liked this same idea - this is how the ball bearing was born.

Contrapposto

The definition denotes the opposition of opposites and the creation of a certain type of movement. An example is the sculpture of a huge horse in Corte Vecchio. There, the animal’s legs are positioned precisely in the contrapposto style, forming a visual understanding of the movement.

Incompleteness

This is perhaps one of the Master’s favorite “tricks”. None of his works are finite. To complete is to kill, and da Vinci loved every one of his creations. Slow and meticulous, the hoaxer of all times could take a couple of brush strokes and go to the valleys of Lombardy to improve the landscapes there, switch to creating the next masterpiece device, or something else. Many works turned out to be spoiled by time, fire or water, but each of the creations, at least meaning something, was and is “unfinished”. By the way, it is interesting that even after the damage, Leonardo da Vinci never corrected his paintings. Having created his own paint, the artist even deliberately left a “window of incompleteness,” believing that life itself would make the necessary adjustments.

What was art before Leonardo da Vinci? Born among the rich, it fully reflected their interests, their worldview, their views on man and the world. The works of art were based on religious ideas and themes: affirmation of those views on the world that the church taught, depiction of scenes from sacred history, instilling in people a sense of reverence, admiration for the “divine” and consciousness of their own insignificance. The dominant theme also determined the form. Naturally, the image of the “saints” was very far from the images of real living people, therefore, schemes, artificiality, and staticity dominated in art. The people in these paintings were a kind of caricature of living people, the landscape is fantastic, the colors are pale and inexpressive. True, even before Leonardo, his predecessors, including his teacher Andrea Verrocchio, were no longer satisfied with the template and tried to create new images. They had already begun the search for new methods of depiction, began to study the laws of perspective, and thought a lot about the problems of achieving expressiveness in the image.

However, these searches for something new did not yield great results, primarily because these artists did not have a sufficiently clear idea of ​​the essence and tasks of art and knowledge of the laws of painting. That is why they fell again into schematism, then into naturalism, which is equally dangerous for genuine art, copying individual phenomena of reality. The significance of the revolution made by Leonardo da Vinci in art and in particular in painting is determined primarily by the fact that he was the first to clearly, clearly and definitely establish the essence and tasks of art. Art should be deeply life-like and realistic. It must come from a deep, careful study of reality and nature. It must be deeply truthful, must depict reality as it is, without any artificiality or falsehood. Reality, nature is beautiful in itself and does not need any embellishment. The artist must carefully study nature, but not to blindly imitate it, not to simply copy it, but in order to create works, having understood the laws of nature, the laws of reality; strictly comply with these laws. Create new values, values real world- this is the purpose of art. This explains Leonardo's desire to connect art and science. Instead of simple, casual observation, he considered it necessary to systematically, persistently study the subject. It is known that Leonardo never parted with the album and wrote drawings and sketches in it.

They say that he loved to walk through the streets, squares, markets, noting everything interesting - people’s poses, faces, their expressions. Leonardo's second requirement for painting is the requirement for the truthfulness of the image, its vitality. The artist must strive for the most accurate representation of reality in all its richness. At the center of the world stands a living, thinking, feeling person. It is he who must be depicted in all the richness of his feelings, experiences and actions. For this purpose, it was Leonardo who studied human anatomy and physiology; for this purpose, as they say, he gathered peasants he knew in his workshop and, treating them, told them funny stories to see how people laugh, how the same event causes different impressions in people. If before Leonardo there was no real man in painting, now he has become dominant in the art of the Renaissance. Hundreds of Leonardo's drawings provide a gigantic gallery of types of people, their faces, and parts of their bodies. Man in all the diversity of his feelings and actions is the task of artistic depiction. And this is the power and charm of Leonardo’s painting. Forced by the conditions of the time to paint pictures mainly on religious subjects, because his customers were the church, feudal lords and rich merchants, Leonardo powerfully subordinates these traditional subjects to his genius and creates works of universal significance. The Madonnas painted by Leonardo are, first of all, an image of one of the deeply human feelings - the feeling of motherhood, the boundless love of a mother for her baby, admiration and admiration for him. All his Madonnas are young, blooming women full of life, all the babies in his paintings are healthy, full-cheeked, playful boys, in whom there is not an ounce of “holiness.”

His apostles in The Last Supper are living people of different ages, social status, and different characters; in appearance they are Milanese artisans, peasants, and intellectuals. Striving for truth, the artist must be able to generalize what he finds individual and must create the typical. Therefore, even when painting portraits of certain historically known people, such as Mona Lisa Gioconda, the wife of a bankrupt aristocrat, Florentine merchant Francesco del Gioconda, Leonardo gives them, along with individual portrait features, a typical feature common to many people. That is why the portraits he painted survived the people depicted in them for many centuries. Leonardo was the first who not only carefully and carefully studied the laws of painting, but also formulated them. He deeply, like no one before him, studied the laws of perspective, the placement of light and shadow. He needed all this to achieve the highest expressiveness of the picture, in order to, as he said, “become equal to nature.” For the first time, it was in the works of Leonardo that the painting as such lost its static character and became a window into the world. When you look at his painting, the feeling of what was painted, enclosed in a frame, is lost and it seems that you are looking through an open window, revealing to the viewer something new, something they have never seen. Demanding the expressiveness of the painting, Leonardo resolutely opposed the formal play of colors, against the enthusiasm for form at the expense of content, against what so clearly characterizes decadent art.

For Leonardo, form is only the shell of the idea that the artist must convey to the viewer. Leonardo pays a lot of attention to the problems of the composition of the picture, the problems of placement of figures, and individual details. Hence his favorite composition of placing figures in a triangle - the simplest geometric harmonic figure - a composition that allows the viewer to embrace the whole picture as a whole. Expressiveness, truthfulness, accessibility - these are the laws of real, truly folk art formulated by Leonardo da Vinci, laws that he himself embodied in his brilliant works. Already in his first major painting, “Madonna with a Flower,” Leonardo showed in practice what the principles of art he professed meant. What is striking about this picture is, first of all, its composition, the surprisingly harmonious distribution of all the elements of the picture that make up a single whole. The image of a young mother with a cheerful child in her arms is deeply realistic. The directly felt deep blue of the Italian sky through the window slot is incredibly skillfully conveyed. Already in this picture, Leonardo demonstrated the principle of his art - realism, the depiction of a person in the deepest accordance with his true nature, the depiction of not an abstract scheme, which was what medieval ascetic art taught and did, namely a living, feeling person.

These principles are even more clearly expressed in Leonardo’s second major painting, “The Adoration of the Magi” from 1481, in which what is significant is not the religious plot, but the masterful depiction of people, each of whom has their own, individual face, their own pose, expressing their own feeling and mood. Life truth is the law of Leonardo’s painting. The fullest possible disclosure of a person’s inner life is its goal. In “The Last Supper” the composition is brought to perfection: despite the large number of figures - 13, their placement is strictly calculated so that they all as a whole represent a kind of unity, full of great internal content. The picture is very dynamic: some terrible news communicated by Jesus struck his disciples, each of them reacts to it in their own way, hence the huge variety of expressions of inner feelings on the faces of the apostles. Compositional perfection is complemented by an unusually masterful use of colors, harmony of light and shadows. The expressiveness of the painting reaches its perfection thanks to the extraordinary variety of not only facial expressions, but the position of each of the twenty-six hands drawn in the picture.

This recording by Leonardo himself tells us about the careful preliminary work that he carried out before painting the picture. Everything in it is thought out to the smallest detail: poses, facial expressions; even details such as an overturned bowl or knife; all this in its sum forms a single whole. The richness of colors in this painting is combined with a subtle use of chiaroscuro, which emphasizes the significance of the event depicted in the painting. The subtlety of perspective, the transmission of air and color make this painting a masterpiece of world art. Leonardo successfully solved many problems facing artists at that time and opened the way further development art. By the power of his genius, Leonardo overcame the medieval traditions that weighed heavily on art, broke them and discarded them; he was able to push the narrow boundaries that limited the creative power of the artist by the then ruling clique of churchmen, and show, instead of the hackneyed gospel stencil scene, a huge, purely human drama, show living people with their passions, feelings, experiences. And in this picture the great, life-affirming optimism of the artist and thinker Leonardo again manifested itself.

Over the years of his wanderings, Leonardo painted many more paintings that received well-deserved world fame and recognition. In "La Gioconda" a deeply vital and typical image is given. It is this deep vitality, the unusually relief rendering of facial features, individual details, and costume, combined with a masterfully painted landscape, that gives this picture special expressiveness. Everything about her—from the mysterious half-smile playing on her face to her calmly folded hands—speaks of great inner content, of the great spiritual life of this woman. Leonardo's desire to convey inner world in the external manifestations of mental movements is expressed here especially fully. An interesting painting by Leonardo is “The Battle of Anghiari”, depicting the battle of cavalry and infantry. As in his other paintings, Leonardo sought here to show a variety of faces, figures and poses. Dozens of people depicted by the artist create a complete impression of the picture precisely because they are all subordinated to a single idea underlying it. It was a desire to show the rise of all man’s strength in battle, the tension of all his feelings, brought together to achieve victory.